Still around but not in China

Wow .... This thing still exists

On The Road Again

Well not physically on the road again (but we will be in a few weeks). This blog is MOVING YET AGAIN.

The new (well actually old/original) blog can be found by clicking this link. If you want to type it in yourself then the address is
http://mabrown.blogsome.com

Reason for the switch??
I used to be on blogsome and then it got blocked. Blogspot was recommended as one that was not being blocked in China but lo and behold after a few months of pain free blogging at this site it too was blocked.

The silver lining in this cloud is that blogsome is now unblocked so I am going back to the original site. If I get time I will try to port this site over to the new one.

I am not going to play the jump around game anymore and will remain at blogsome for the foreseeable future (even if it gets blocked again).

Happy Birthday Pops!

At your age (which shall remain a secret) you should get to do a lot more of this


Enjoy the cheaper insurance!

Track #24

Our car stereo is able to use a memory card (SD to be exact) as well as a CD to play music. I put quite a few songs on for the boys to keep them somewhat occupied while Alice negotiates Chinese traffic. I also had put some songs on for Alice for her grade 1 class to play a "freeze" game. She wanted some fast paced upbeat music and so song #24 is none other than "The Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet from 1973. The boys LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song and that's all they let us play. They keep saying "Er Shi Si Hao" which is #24 in Chinese.

Enjoy

Baby It's Cold Outside

Here is the weather report for the next week in our fair city of Dalian.


Apparently northern China is being hit with a winter storm that is the worst in decades. In Beijing and Tianjin the middle and elementary schools are closed tomorrow.
Here is a shot of people waiting to get into a Beijing subway station


We'll bundle up and hope for the best tomorrow. Now let Dino and Doris Day tell you what you can do when it's cold outside.

Simply Had a Wonderful Christmas Time

The boys were pretty excited about the jolly old elf's visit and had been looking forward to it the entire month of December. Christmas morning arrived and when the clock struck 5:30 AM the boys were up and dancing around yelling "Santa came!" We wasted no time and got right into the thick of it. Got mom and dad on Skype to watch the boys open their gifts. Marshall couldn't bear to watch as it still was only Christmas Eve in Canada and Santa had yet to arrive.

By 7 AM the gifts were done and that's when Carter looked out his window and yelled in delight "Mama xia xuele!" which is Chinese for "Mom it's snowing!". Our first snowfall of the year arrived on Christmas day .. how poetic was that. Breakfast in the form of French Toast, Bacon and Scrambled Eggs followed. Then the real fun began .. playing with the new Wii we bought ourselves. Hard to tell who the real children were that day.

Carter's Candy Cane

The fam spent some quality time colouring together tonight. Carter is showing some serious talent with this candy cane he coloured. His colouring and cutting are better than mine. I'm going back to preschool.

Santa's Big Scene

Once again as Christmas approaches Santa is busily making toys and gifts for all the good boys and girls in this world including those living in China. He is never too busy, however, to take time to stop by our little suburb of Kai Fa Qu and visit our children. Yesterday we got word the jolly old elf was headed our way so we bundled up and headed down to La Provence - Kai Fa Qu's premiere and only French restaurant. We had a great breakfast buffet with loads o' coffee and watched the excitement build among the little ones. Santa arrived with a bag full of toys and somehow managed to know exactly what each one wanted. Truly amazing


Santa purveying the scene


Nathan bolted up when his name was called. He was very happy indeed


The boy and his toys


What a beautiful picture. Carter was the second to last kid to get his turn on Santa's knee but he waited patiently like a trooper. He kept reminding his mama to take his picture when he got up to Santa and was worried she would forget.

WrestleMania Dalian - WinterSlam

This past weekend we had a visit from Santa in our fair city of Dalian. Prior to his arrival the kids were very excited as you can imagine. To channel his energy Nathan and his best buddy Brendan entertained the adults with a little display of the art of wrestling.

Say It Ain't So Tony!

I just read in the Vancouver Sun (of course online .. you don't think we get the Vancouver Sun in China do you?) .. anyway .. I just read that after 35 years with Global (formerly BCTV) that Tony Parson is calling it quits. The final one of the Big Three of broadcasting from my youth is leaving. The Big Three consisted of Tony Parsons, Bernie Pascall, and Norm Grohman.

I grew up with Tony Parsons as THE voice of news in our household. Truly the end of an era. Gretzky retires in 1999 and now Tony in 2009. What will 2019 bring?


Tony with Jack "9 AM precisely" Webster

Mama and Son

Nathan got a little personal time with his Mama so that she could help him with an activity workbook. Carter is usually honing in on the action but this particular day he decided to leave well enough alone. What can I say but "cute eh?"

Deck The Tree with Bows of Holly

The Brown-Ma tree went up last week and it was a raving success. This is one of Carter's favourite activities and it is great to watch the joy in his face. Nathan is starting to get into it more and more as well. You'll notice that I get out of decking the tree by being the "official" photographer.

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

Super catchy .. now I want a hippopotamus for Christmas.

Mmmm ....

Picked up this lovely bit 'o tea whilst in Shanghai a few weekends back. Can't get enough. Would love to blog more about its wonderful rich aroma and taste but I'm off to make my second cup.

Cheerio.

Christmas

The beginning of the Christmas starts a slew of Christmas posts. The first goes out to mom whose favourite Christmas song is Little Drummer Boy (am I right?)

The Far Side

In 1986 I attended UBC for the first time and for the first time read a newspaper other than the Quesnel Cariboo Observer. It was The Province which I know is a tabloid .. whatever! I read it was because the sports section was superior to the Vancouver Sun. Anyway in that newspaper I saw, for the first time, The Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson. I was instantly hooked. His nutty, twisted take on life struck a chord. The first cartoon I read was this one

God as a kid tries to make a chicken in his room

I lived in "res" (Okanagan House in Place Vanier) and as such shared a bathroom with 17 other guys. One day while using the urinal I realized how mindnumbingly boring that procedure is (staring at tile walls). I thought others might have been just as bored so I cut The Far Side out of the paper each day and taped it to the wall above the urinal. It was a smash hit and while I didn't command a great deal of respect this was enough to raise my rank among the second and third year students.

The Far Side ran from 1980 to 1995 after which Gary Larson went into retirement as he felt he was getting stale. I did not share this opinion. I miss it and if Gary is reading this I am sure that enough time has past that there are fresh ideas.

I think possibly the most famous of all his cartoons is this one


How can you not love it? If you don't then get an application to Midvale.

Carter and Nathan's Room

In the continuing cARTer series the latest creation is a drawing of the boys room.

First the model


Now the drawing

He has an eye for colour to be sure. In the middle is the window with clouds, sun and a bird. He drew his bed with the red bedspread but we are unclear as to the reason for the fish swimming in his room. The fish are Dory and Nemo in case you were wondering.

Geeky Gathering

This little piece of technology is the TI-83 produced by Texas Instruments. The Math 12 program in BC requires a graphing calculator be used on the provincial exam and we have been using TI-83+ at our school for 10 years now. So why am I writing about it now? Glad you asked.

Tomorrow I and another staff member depart for Shanghai to attend the CaoYang No.2 High School Math Conference and TI Workshop 2009. 2 days of sharing how many geeky things you can do with this calculator to better the teaching of students. Yup .. should be a real humdinger. Actually I'm kind of excited by it and 2 days in Shanghai is nothing to sneeze at.

By the way if you don't have one of these technical marvels there are still some things you can do with a regular calculator that will amaze and wow your friends.

I'm A Nut

Heard this song on my nephew Marshall's Ipod this summer. Been humming it off and on ever since.

Catchy Tune of the Day

With all due respect to Eric Idle of Monty Python fame I give you Clint Black's rendition of The Galaxy Song.