I Don't Get It.

As I (Matt) was enjoying Christmas, I discovered a little present Santa left for me. It was a tasty treat, a Reese's peanut butter cup, flown in all the way from the US. I happily unwrapped the foil and popped it straight into my mouth, savouring the rich, peanut butter chocolatey taste. As I was enjoying it, I suddenly became aware of an unusual texture. Trying to decipher what it was, I internally deconstructed the assortment of flavours in my mouth. Upon separating the unusual texture, I hastily spat it out of my mouth. To my chagrin, I discovered I had been eating what turned out to be the internal wrapping of the peanut butter cup!

I don't get it. Why are there two wrappings?

Happy Holidays!

We could give Charlie Brown a run for his money...

Wow, it's been so long since we've updated, I'm truly sorry. But we've been traveling for what feels like forever and only just returned last week. And trust me, it takes that long to recover from jet lag in Australia. And because of our being out of the country, we're a little behind on our Christmas decorating. Which brings me to the main subject about this blog.

One of the few...what's the word...flaws that Matt has, is that he is lacking a little bit in the Christmas spirit department. He's a very practical person, and sometimes he can't understand why do something like decorate or wrap presents to be opened on Christmas when he can just give me the present as he buys it. And don't even get me started on his belief (or lack thereof) in Santa Claus. Now I'm totally a Christmasaholic. I love this time of year, I love the music, the lights, the feeling of goodwill toward men and the slight nip in the air. I love the food, and sitting in the living room with the lights off looking at the twinkling Christmas tree. I love shopping and getting the perfect gift for some one, and yeah I like getting gifts too (most people do, come on admit it).

Well, since we got back we haven't really done much as far as decorating. Matt is currently not working (his contract expired at the end of November and he's unlikely to pick up work again until January) we knew this was coming and we planned for it. But also with a baby on the way and mucho bucks having been spent on providing for said baby, we just don't have a whole lot left over for grand decorations. Which is fine with Scrooge McMatt, but not so much for me.

I have been teasing Matt about his lack of Christmas spirit and how it is not something that will continue too be acceptable in our house, especially next year when the baby comes. He's been taking it all in good humor, but that hasn't stopped him from trying to lure me over to the dark side. "Bah humbug" he tells me! Believe me he's got a long road ahead of him on that one. However I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that this year, Christmas would have to primarily be in my heart.

But, my parents happen to be the coolest people in the world and sent us a package. Inside the package were some much loved and craved s'mores poptarts (its not me, its the baby who wants them) as well as a mini Christmas tree complete with 'lights' and ornaments that can actually be hung on the tree. They also sent stockings for Santa to fill (because despite Matt's Grinch attitude, he has been a good boy this year). I set up the Christmas tree and half heartedly put some ornaments on. And sighed to myself more than once how challenging it is to be married to a grinch whose heart is three sizes to small. Once the tree was semi set up, we weren't sure where to display it. We have such a small flat with limited space there's just not much room.

This is where the Christmas miracle comes to play. After having only a half decorated tree for a few days, Matt somewhat grudgingly helped me finish putting the ornaments on the tree (I had all my best Christmas songs playing in the background, he was powerless to resist) and try to find a home for it. We finished the tree and it looked fine, but a little empty. We decided that it needed a star. But what could we use? I grabbed some notebook paper and hesitantly started thinking about how I was going to go about making a star (for those who know me, I'm so not good with things like this, it seems simple, but to me it's not) Matt seeing my distress, agreed to cut out the star (I am 5 months pregnant after all and supposed to stay away from unnecessary stress). He cut it out and to our delight, it actually resembled a star! However we couldn't have the star on lined notebook paper, so I looked for something to color it with. Matt produced a highlighter, but it didn't really do much. So Matt came up with the idea of cutting out yellow post it notes to be taped onto the notepaper star. He carefully measured and cut and taped various bits of post it notes until we finally had a beautiful yellow star to top off our tree. Then he suggested that we wrap our Christmas presents (we each got one small gift for the other) and put them under the tree. Or in this case under the chair that the tree was sitting on. Then Matt thought it would be cool to place the ornaments for a real tree (that were too heavy for our little one) around the base of the tree. See, we stole my sister Cyndi's idea and have tried to purchase an ornament from every country we've visited.

We got a package from my Aunt and that was placed under the tree. Our only two Christmas cards were placed around it and we were feeling pretty festive. For the rest of the night we admired our little Tree on a Chair and talked about how nice it was.

Here was its first home, on what we like to call the 'eatin' chair. Notice our American bough Xbox, to convert the voltage we have to use that large bulky transformer sitting next to it. Attractive eh?

Today, Matt woke up and decided that the chair was not an appropriate place for our tree. Nope, our little Christmas tree deserved its own place of honor. In our living room we have a book case. Only one of the shelves actually has books on it. The rest are papers (important and not) and over all junk that has collected on the shelves simply by nature of being a convenient place to put things. Well, Matt in his quest to create the perfect space cleaned off the shelves (I did help, but even I thought his ideas were getting a bit grand for the situation), moved things from the bottom shelves to the not used top shelf and then completely removed one shelf to create a large area of space. Then he painstakingly moved the (kind of unsteady) Christmas tree, all the ornaments, cards, presents etc into its new home. I pointed out that while it was a good space, our little one bulb light in our living room didn't really reach there very well and now the tree was in the shadow. We tried to come up with a solution, we don't have a lamp that we could place over there to shine on it...but as Matt pointed out, we do have a flashlight!

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical, a flashlight? How would that work? Its not a very big one, it was a stocking stuffer from my dad from last year and laying it on the ground wouldn't be very effective. But my cute husband, now bursting with the Christmas spirit, and humming 'Winter Wonderland' to himself would not be deterred. He rigged it so that the tiny flashlight could hang from the top shelf and when turned on, shine down onto the tree.

I have to admit. I was impressed and it works very well.

So where I thought it would take me a few years and a few kids to bring Scrooge McMatt over to the fairy light side, I was very impressed that he was able to get into the spirit so readily this year. Not only that, but he's been on the look out for me for candy canes everywhere he's been. He doesn't like them, but I love them. Who would've thought that London would be sold out of candy canes? We can't find them anywhere. Not in stores big or small, retail or grocery. It's a little worrying to me that the great candy cane shortage of '08 is not being picked up by every media outlet in the country. Ah well.

This is Matt working the tree's new home:


Take note of the suspended flashlight hanging from the next shelf:


And finally the finished product!


And a farther away shot:


So now the Ngai household is brimming with the Christmas spirit! Music is constantly hummed, stockings have been hung by the calendar with care and we look forward to spending our first Christmas as a family together.

I hope you all have wonderful Christmases as well. Oh, and tomorrow we (hopefully) find out what gender we're having baby-wise. My sister Cyndi, who is due a month after me, just found out she's having a girl, so we'll see. Watch this space!

Merry Christmas!

People With Kids Have the Advantage...

So something occurred to me the other day. I finally figured out why sometimes I have such a mental block with it comes to thinking up something even semi-interesting to blog about. It's because we don't have kids. Not yet anyway. And even in 6 months time when we do have one, its going to be awhile before he/she does anything interesting enough to blog about.

I mean think about it, most of the blogs I read (mostly from my family members and friends) usually revolve around something cute/funny/naughty/interesting their kids have done. Rarely do you get a blog that doesn't involve a kid story in some way. And that's okay. In fact, as a doting aunt, I'd rather read stories about my adorable nieces and nephews than my sibs any day (sorry, but you know it's true).

However when you don't have kids, you have to stretch a bit more to think of things to blog about. And if adults do the same things, it's just not as funny. I mean, I suppose I could write about the time when Matt was being unusually quiet and I found him dumping every toy he owns into the toilet. Or the time when he threw a huge temper tantrum in the store because I wouldn't buy him some candy and people shot me accusing looks as to why I couldn't control my husband better. But they're just not the same, and frankly, they're also not true (as far as you know).

I don't know, maybe by this time next year I can write about how Junior finally figured out how to roll over or started crawling. Sure, it's not that funny or precious, but it's a step in the right direction, isn't it?

It's The Little Things

I am not a good sick person. I admit it. Luckily, I usually don't get sick very often. Except for the last month. Actually, I have been sick for over a month. It started out with a cold that took a long time in going away, then it morphed into 'lingering cough/pretty bad morning sickness' (for those of you who don't know, yes I am). And just this week, as the morning sickness has finally started to die down, I got another cold. It's important to note that I wasn't quite over the last cold(s) that I had.

And this most recent one was a doozie. I can honestly say that I've never gone through so many tissues/kleenex/paper towels (last resort) in my life. My nose would not stop dripping/running/being an overall pain in the face. I went through an entire box of kleenexes in four hours. I went through an entire roll of TP earlier that day. And I wasn't wasting these things...I used every part to its fullest capacity. Then we ran out of TP and kleenexes, so I had to use paper towels. Ouch. And yeah, I feel like a real winner with this chapped skin around my nose and upper lip. I'm such a hottie these days.

But I don't want the blog to revolve around me and my ailments (though your sympathy is always welcome...even when I'm not sick). No, I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful husband. I really did something right when I agreed to marry this guy. He's been wonderful. He's shopped especially for the softest tissues for my nose. He's handled my food aversions and sickness without a word of complaint. He's come home to me groaning on the couch, half delirious mumbling incoherently and either made dinner, or actually ate what I'd prepared in my delirium (like frozen veg that wasn't quite unfrozen) he's done all of this without any complaint. He's always concerned about me.

I've been trying to be a more positive person. Like I said, I don't do sick very well, and it's fine when it only hits me once a year or so, but this fall I've been having is rough. However, having such a great husband has helped me want to be a non-complainer. So I'm trying to power through with a smile. Personally, I prefer the complaining, but you know...I'm always up for new challenges.

So here are some of the quirks about my husband that I love. He'll be horrified that I did this, but our six month anniversary just passed and well, I feel like doing it.

So here it is, just a spattering of things that I love about Matt:

How he has to sleep with three pillows (I have one) and how he creates what he calls his 'fort', which involves two at the head, and one along the side of the bed (not my side, the side on the edge...I suppose I make up the other wall of the fort) this is very important to him. In fact, one night I asked to have one of his pillows because my doctor suggested that sleeping with my head propped higher up might help me drain. He willingly gave it over, but the next night the pillow was off of the spare bed and making up the missing wall of his fort.

He loves playing Fifa on Xbox. I don't begrudge him this. He works hard, he takes care of me, and he really loves it. It allows him to live out his fantasy of being a football (soccer for all the yanks out there) manager. He can sell and buy players and then play them in matches. Currently he's managing Fulham, which is both of our favorite team in the Premier. He gets so excited when he scores goals and wins games, and kind of pouts a little when he loses...it's funny.

In the middle of the night when I wake both of us up with one of my infamous coughing fits, he always sleepily asks me if I'm okay and if he can do anything. He usually stays awake to hear my response.

He debates things with me. We don't really argue, but we both tend to have strong opinions and are kind of stubborn (which according to our most recent ultrasound, our child has inherited). But he doesn't let me win. He, of course, is always right and always wants to be the one to win...then again so do I. We're competitive that way (friendly though).

He's a great uncle. When he married me he inherited 11 nieces and nephews. And he couldn't be happier. He's always on the lookout for things for the kids and will often say things like "we should pop into that McDonalds there and see if they have any good toys for (insert niece/nephew name here)" and on their birthdays he always insists that the presents be perfect, even if I, with all my years of vast experience think otherwise. This is why our very active 4 year old nephew got a battery powered water gun that shoots up to 25 feet. Sorry again Bek.

He daydreams with me. And he listens to my dreams and fears and hopes. And he does everything he can to make them come true. Even if some of them involve winning the lotto or inheriting a large amount of money. Which he's still working on.

He's a great provider. He's a great encourager. He's convinced that I can do whatever I want and that I'll succeed.

I could go on and on, but let's face it. Most of you stopped reading about five paragraphs ago. I don't care. It's our blog and our history and I'm just very appreciative of the wonderful man I get to spend forever with.

Mock me if you will. I don't care.

Now, I've got to go and tell Matt how proud I am of him because Fulham just beat Liverpool in PK's (on Fifa of course, that would never happen in real life, unfortunately). That's my man!

We built this city!

No this is not about the Starship song but more about the most populated city in the European Union. Yes, that’s right London.

One of things that strikes you as you walk around the many streets of this city is the amount of construction work happening all at once. The term hustle and bustle is aptly described by what you find in London with the constant flow of vehicle and people traffic complemented by the noise of the dust raising construction works. I work in one of the busiest districts of the city, right by the world famous Oxford Street and would often go for a walk around the block during my lunch hour. I thought it would be a good time to let you in on what I mean by building this city.

Early morning works by my office.


Lunch time walk around the block. Some the side streets.

Oxford St - This construction site seems to go on and on.

Is there anywhere where I can escape all this construction madness? This is what I'm thinking as I head back into my office…oh no, what's this, they've started in my building now...no, I guess not.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

I ate some peanut butter on toast today and it made me feel a little sick afterwards. Not knowing what I could do to alleviate this ailment, I decided to then eat some peanut butter cups.

I felt better.

Hmmmm...

Still Laughing...

Here's a joke I told Matt yesterday that he thought was really funny. In fact, he thought it was so funny, it was 'blog worthy' so here it is:

What did the tie say to the hat?

You go on ahead, I'll hang around here.

Pretty funny eh?

Yeah, you can thank us by sending money. Isn't a little bit of laughter for your day worth it?