Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Birthday and recovery
Odette:
All glammed up for dinner and decided to read my B`day emails...dumb move! Got all emotional and howled all my make-up off so still no nice photos of me I expect.
The Holiday Inn was very extravagant and the buffet dinner was so lavish. Yet another cake appeared, so of course it was only polite to sample that too! I left literally groaning and bursting out of Laurinda's pants which DID fit me before we left lol. It was so warm inside the hotel that it was easy to forget the sub zero temperature outside until it was time to leave and find a taxi home. Unfortunately, the front doors of the hospital were locked when we arrived and we had to make our way around to the side door...quite a hike on a very full tummy and feeling absolutely frozen for the first time ever! Well, the others walked, but guess who was running? Me!! I was running!! Laurinda said to her friend Pam "My Mother has MS and she's leaving us for dead".
haha. Another triumph in a list of so many.
I was woken very early by the Vampire Nurse who took lots of blood to repeat all the tests (ECG too) that were done when I arrived. Results should be in this afternoon. They will be good, no, they will be great!
Laurinda is quite the social butterfly ( Oh I wonder where she got that from?) and has headed out for the day with a group of other carers. They have ventured downtown (I always have to laugh when I say Downtown Quingdao, its as far from downtown as you can possibly imagine) again, yet more tattoos for some, shopping and sight-seeing for others. I am hoping she doesn't return with any piercings or suspensions (for those who, like me til a couple of days ago, don't know, she described them to me in detail the other day....hooks inserted into the skin so you can literally hang!) Some people hang from the Himalayas and other amazing places. Adrenalin is a very powerful thing, but not for me thanks. I'm hoping her smallish and actually very pretty tattoo will suffice. There's always hang gliding after all.
So, after a hot shower (yay!! hot water again!!) I am enjoying a few hours of rest and reflection between therapies.
What a journey. What an adventure. And I got to share it all with my beautiful daughter. A lucky and happy lady indeed!
Thank you Universe.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Saturday Market Day
Odette:
A day to remember.
We teamed up with our Brits (Pete and Kev) and took a taxi to the outdoor markets. We were asked several times if we sure we wanted to visit these markets and warned that wee may see things we might find offensive. Oh no! We can handle anything we said! We jumped out of the taxi straight into a blast of freezing air, a howling gale and smells we never want to remember. The weather got more and more furious and there wasn't really anywhere to shelter in our summer skirts so we continued to slosh through the running sewerage in our thongs.
After rows and rows of stalls selling the same jeans and Nikes for $5 we finally found cover at the meat and seafood area. There were all sorts of shellfish and other delicacies such as bolied dog's heads (teeth intact), live chickens, doves and worms and every part of every animal we could dream up. No waste here! Pete shocked us all by sampling a morsel of dogs head which he immediately spat out. Our concern is the 'chicken' we have been eating closely resembles the colour and texture of the dog. Mmmmm. After a hot shower and decontamination, Laurinda went to lunch with the boys and saw a martial arts presentation - while I rested. Quiet night in watching a movie. Still finalising plans for tomorrow.
A day to remember.
We teamed up with our Brits (Pete and Kev) and took a taxi to the outdoor markets. We were asked several times if we sure we wanted to visit these markets and warned that wee may see things we might find offensive. Oh no! We can handle anything we said! We jumped out of the taxi straight into a blast of freezing air, a howling gale and smells we never want to remember. The weather got more and more furious and there wasn't really anywhere to shelter in our summer skirts so we continued to slosh through the running sewerage in our thongs.
After rows and rows of stalls selling the same jeans and Nikes for $5 we finally found cover at the meat and seafood area. There were all sorts of shellfish and other delicacies such as bolied dog's heads (teeth intact), live chickens, doves and worms and every part of every animal we could dream up. No waste here! Pete shocked us all by sampling a morsel of dogs head which he immediately spat out. Our concern is the 'chicken' we have been eating closely resembles the colour and texture of the dog. Mmmmm. After a hot shower and decontamination, Laurinda went to lunch with the boys and saw a martial arts presentation - while I rested. Quiet night in watching a movie. Still finalising plans for tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Week 2 - Monday and Tuesday
This morning while mum was receiving therapy, I went to the RT Mart to buy DVDs and camera still no DVDs to be found but I managed to find a camera for $120 so I said I wanted to buy the camera and she told me 'no, none'. Through very broken Chinese and a little help from my phrase book I worked out there were more coming today and she told me in English 'just minute' so I wait and wait and wait. She looks at me funny and I ask 'when?' she rambles in Chinese and I pull out my book to the days of the week and she points to Monday so I ask 'oh delivery today?' She nods. I say 'what time?' and she tells me '4 o 'clock'. Lucky I have learnt some Chinese and had my book with me or I would have waited all day for 'just a minute' haha... so I walk the forty minutes home with nothing but some large blisters. I got back and mum said 'Hey! Where's my lunch? I didn't order lunch because I thought you were bringing me something yummy home!'
So we went to the Lottemart food court for dumplings and a stir fry thing with all the pickled vege and gim chee trimmings. It was very yummy and everyone thought we were very funny trying to order in Chinese. After you order you take your ticket over to central food court cash register area, pay then come back with ticket and wait- didn't take long. I walked off to get mum a drink and it was on the table with her when I returned. When we went to leave we saw the cheap cameras for sale in the food court! So we finally got a camera for $100 and paid extra $20 for a 2GB card and it saves me from walking all the way back to RT Mart tomorrow. So we can now post some photos!
Out the front of the hospital there are street vendors selling lunch but we just haven't been that adventurous yet! It is a strange melting pot of East meets West. We are very excited about mum's first lumbar puncture delivery of stem cells tomorrow. They joke here that it is like taking the lift straight to the penthouse to fix the myelin where it's needed rather than taking the stairs and stopping on each floor.
So we went to the Lottemart food court for dumplings and a stir fry thing with all the pickled vege and gim chee trimmings. It was very yummy and everyone thought we were very funny trying to order in Chinese. After you order you take your ticket over to central food court cash register area, pay then come back with ticket and wait- didn't take long. I walked off to get mum a drink and it was on the table with her when I returned. When we went to leave we saw the cheap cameras for sale in the food court! So we finally got a camera for $100 and paid extra $20 for a 2GB card and it saves me from walking all the way back to RT Mart tomorrow. So we can now post some photos!
Out the front of the hospital there are street vendors selling lunch but we just haven't been that adventurous yet! It is a strange melting pot of East meets West. We are very excited about mum's first lumbar puncture delivery of stem cells tomorrow. They joke here that it is like taking the lift straight to the penthouse to fix the myelin where it's needed rather than taking the stairs and stopping on each floor.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Arrival in Qingdao
Sorry about the delay for our next post, we have had many difficulties accessing the Internet in China and due to government restrictions we have not had access to our blog (or any other websites). However we have found away to keep you updated :)
We landed in Qingdao (pronounced Chin Dow) and after a minor hiccup at customs where they looked like they weren't going to let mum in, we had our passports stamped and made our way to baggage collection. We were very surprised to find our luggage had actually made all the connecting flights and arrived safely with us. As we pushed our trolley (groaning with all the Paris Hilton luggage) out the gates we looked out into the sea of similar faces, many holding signs in Chinese, desperately looking for our names. Someone shouted 'Odette' and we were both overcome with relief. A friendly guy walked up and introduced himself as 'Michael 'our translator. He pushed our trolley to the van and introduced us to 'Cliff' the driver and 'Lucy” another translator.
The drive to the hospital was short. Chengyang is a relatively new district and everything has just been built or is currently under construction. It is very clean and the streets are lined with perfectly manicured weeping willows and firs, just beautiful. There are gardens everywhere and gentle music coming from, well I'm not even sure where. I couldn't think of a more beautiful or relaxing place to stay (if you have to be in hospital).
We were taken to the 8th floor and found “Odette van Straalen” and the Australian flag on the door to room 3. This is home for us for the next 5 weeks. It's not bad at all, flushing toilet (unlike the airport) shower, water cooler, fridge and microwave, couch and a cement futon each. We are able to access the Internet from our room but due to censorship we can't actually use it. Fortunately it does allow us to access emails sometimes and use Skype to contact loved ones back home (miss you my beautiful babies).
There are many other foreigners here receiving stem cells from all over the world including fellow aussies and kiwis. Many of the patients are children. Everyone is very friendly. The staff are extremely friendly and try so hard to speak English. There is a shared kitchen, dining and lounge area. Across the road is a brand new shopping complex (two or three times the size of anywhere we're used to shopping) and at night it's lit up like a Christmas tree. They have a wedding shop directly across from our window and it has huge speakers out the front that scream Whitney Houston all day.
We were given a Chinese and a Pizza menu and asked to order dinner. We ordered calamari, sweetcorn with pine nuts and spring rolls. They were delivered to our door for the small sum of $8. I opened the spring rolls expecting 4 and there were about 50 of them! Very cheap, very yummy, very easy. Not sure how well we're going to sleep on these cement futons but we're pretty stuffed!
We landed in Qingdao (pronounced Chin Dow) and after a minor hiccup at customs where they looked like they weren't going to let mum in, we had our passports stamped and made our way to baggage collection. We were very surprised to find our luggage had actually made all the connecting flights and arrived safely with us. As we pushed our trolley (groaning with all the Paris Hilton luggage) out the gates we looked out into the sea of similar faces, many holding signs in Chinese, desperately looking for our names. Someone shouted 'Odette' and we were both overcome with relief. A friendly guy walked up and introduced himself as 'Michael 'our translator. He pushed our trolley to the van and introduced us to 'Cliff' the driver and 'Lucy” another translator.
The drive to the hospital was short. Chengyang is a relatively new district and everything has just been built or is currently under construction. It is very clean and the streets are lined with perfectly manicured weeping willows and firs, just beautiful. There are gardens everywhere and gentle music coming from, well I'm not even sure where. I couldn't think of a more beautiful or relaxing place to stay (if you have to be in hospital).
We were taken to the 8th floor and found “Odette van Straalen” and the Australian flag on the door to room 3. This is home for us for the next 5 weeks. It's not bad at all, flushing toilet (unlike the airport) shower, water cooler, fridge and microwave, couch and a cement futon each. We are able to access the Internet from our room but due to censorship we can't actually use it. Fortunately it does allow us to access emails sometimes and use Skype to contact loved ones back home (miss you my beautiful babies).
There are many other foreigners here receiving stem cells from all over the world including fellow aussies and kiwis. Many of the patients are children. Everyone is very friendly. The staff are extremely friendly and try so hard to speak English. There is a shared kitchen, dining and lounge area. Across the road is a brand new shopping complex (two or three times the size of anywhere we're used to shopping) and at night it's lit up like a Christmas tree. They have a wedding shop directly across from our window and it has huge speakers out the front that scream Whitney Houston all day.
We were given a Chinese and a Pizza menu and asked to order dinner. We ordered calamari, sweetcorn with pine nuts and spring rolls. They were delivered to our door for the small sum of $8. I opened the spring rolls expecting 4 and there were about 50 of them! Very cheap, very yummy, very easy. Not sure how well we're going to sleep on these cement futons but we're pretty stuffed!
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