Quick trip to the UK

Work commitments have meant I need to go to the UK for a few days. It has added pressure to getting the Chinese visas given the Mid-Autumn holiday period for the embassy on return. The China trip continues to fall into place with bookings for acrobats made and a list of well reviewed restaurants in tow along with how to get to the various destinations. We expect language to be a bigger issue than normal heading out West.

Six girls will go to high school now!!

The fundraising for the Tibetan girls has gone even better now with 6 girls in total to be funded (2 by us). DD#1 had a lot of fun at camp and DD#2 loved her Peter and the Wolf excursion. Concerts are lining up for end of year activities and very happy to report we have at least 4 less activities next term. No point paying for activities when you will be away for 2-3 weekends. Our trip is now 1 day longer than originally planned which means an extra day in Beijing. Tallied the train fares and it certainly adds up to many hundreds of dollars unless we are prepared to go lower class (short trips OK, but not the long haul trips). And visa paperwork is set (other than photos) so hope to head down to the embassy this week to get in before the October holidays. They want a lot more detail these days and more money. For some reason a virus was detected on DD#2's paperwork and it dropped out without printing, but it may have been related to the fact they want the original name written in native language (OK I can write it but not type it!!).

Plans keep changing

The doc said a very straight NO to grandpa going to ANY altitude. So that rules out way out West for him. Instead he will now spend a day in Xian and take the overnight train to Shanghai - it is a long way so it won't get in until 2pm or so. We may see the Terracotta Warriors and then head West without him. Have been fund raising at work for the sponsored girls and it has gone exceptionally well. We will now have 5 girls in total, with 3 being sponsored for the longevity of their schooling from work colleagues. And the airline sent an email saying that the flight schedule had changed leaving Beijing and there is an offer of changing the dates we leave. We could leave 2 days later which would allow us time to visit Shenyang quickly for Charlotte. That seems like a great option to visit some favourites (Laobian dumplings, get nails done, underground fashion street) and to do some things we missed out on like Xiale ancient area. It is tempting to visit the orphanage again, but I know it would tug impossible to pull off strings to bring that older boy with ear issues home (unless we moved to China semi-permanantly) or to at least try to arrange a hearing aid for him perhaps through Cochlear in Beijing. It will be cold and only 6 or 7 weeks later we could see the snow and ice festival but maybe next time. DD#2 did her very first excursion with kinder using a bus today. She was up at 5.30am and so super excited and ready to leave at 6.00am despite the fact she was 3 hours early. DD#1 has her very first school camp beginning Monday so it is all happening here lately.