Thursday, March 5, 2009 ;
10:20 AM
2 Mar
Mon
It was Y's last morning in Tianjin. The Friday before this, M had requested ds1 go to his house for a playdate. And ds1 did. I enjoyed a quiet Fri afternoon because ds2 was napping. It was great.
And the day before this, M had requested to come to our house, so the whole of Sun afternoon, he was at our house again.
The boys seem to know they will be parting, and are making use of whatever time they had left!
Suddenly they are best friends...
On Sun night, a German Chinese mom msg me on Facebook asking if I want to go send Y off at the airport with her. She wanted to surprise Y. I said I can't go to the airport cos it was too far and ds2 is due home from school at noon.
But I had already planned to send Y off from her house, which was a short walk away from my apt. So I told the mom to meet me here instead?
Since she said it would be a surprise, I suggested we carry a banner then.
We discussed further and it was decided that she would msg me the German and Japanese sentences for the banner and send it via FB to me, then I would print it out and make the banner.
My Ikea paper in a roll came in handy... The funny problem arose when I printed out all the words (each word on an A4 piece of paper), there were about 20+ pieces of paper, and I accidentally jumbled them up.
When I finished measuring and pasting the coloured paper, I realised I didn't know what order to place the foreign words on the banner! It was so funny cos the words were all Greek to me.
So I had to check back word by word on the FB msg, and finally got it right. I slept at 1.30am that night.
Didn't have wooden poles, so had to tape the banner to my vacuum cleaner tubes.... I just hope no one will recognise them. haha.
On that morning, after a trip to emart with H, I rushed home and met up with F and walked to Y's block. She was on the 4th and 5th floor and there were full length glass windows in her double storey apt.
F called her and told her to walk to her window and look down. We were holding the unfurled banner right in the courtyard.
Guess what? Y cried...
So we went upstairs, and hugged and took this group photo.
Then we took a look at her 160kg worth of luggage, bags and boxes. Wow. Her hubby was not ard, so it was the 3 of us (powerpuff girls?) who walked up and down the flights of stairs (yes no lifts in housing blocks in china if they are too low. A local friend lives on the 6th storey and climbs stairs everyday, even with heavy stuff.) with the boxes and luggage.
In the end, she had to call 3 taxis to fit everything inside. 2 of the taxis were full, even with boxes on the car seats and car floor. The last taxi was for them to sit in.
It was a tearful farewell. She also had to bid farewell to her ayi who worked full-time for her for a long time. Her kids were also very attached to this ayi.
It's tough. In a foreign country, you have to say goodbye all the time.
This Sat, another Indian family will move back to India from our estate. I will miss yet another face and yet another friend to talk to when we wait for our kids at the bus stop. Her son is not the same age as mine, so we were not as close as with Y, but still...
Especially during this financial crisis, we keep saying more and more goodbyes, it seems.
rainbows every day, do not worry for the morrow
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On that morning, after a trip to emart with H, I rushed home and met up with F and walked to Y's block. She was on the 4th and 5th floor and there were full length glass windows in her double storey apt.
Then we took a look at her 160kg worth of luggage, bags and boxes. Wow. Her hubby was not ard, so it was the 3 of us (powerpuff girls?) who walked up and down the flights of stairs (yes no lifts in housing blocks in china if they are too low. A local friend lives on the 6th storey and climbs stairs everyday, even with heavy stuff.) with the boxes and luggage.
