Ah-gong and Jason discuss Kitty magnets

Jason rips open dozens of little packets containing Kitty magnets. Thanks, Ah-gong!

Grandpa admires the recent additions to Jason's growing Kitty magnet collection.

Just one more Kitty magnet to go

"Ah-gong" (Grandpa) brought a big bag of 7-Eleven Hello Kitty magnets for Jason to complete his collection. In case you didn't know, there is a mad Kitty magnet craze in Taiwan at the moment. If you spend 77 Taiwan dollars in a 7-11 you get a free magnet and there are 30-odd to collect and swap with your friends. Jason had two missing and now, thanks to Ah-gong, he has all the main ones and only needs one of the three 'special' ones. Sales at 7-Eleven have gone up over 20% compared to this time last year. 7-Eleven know a good thing when they see it and so have brought out a new series of 10 or so magnets with a Taiwan theme [..groan...]

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Grandma and Grandpa came down from Taoyuan this morning. Grandma brought some cooked liver, kidney and other assorted goodies including a raw, frozen pig's heart which is now sitting in a ziplock bag in the freezer. She is going to cook it up for Kelly over the weekend. Grandpa will head back to Taoyuan this evening. We went out for lunch at a great 'northern Chinese' restaurant nearby then I brought Jason home, running some errands on the way.

Lunch

Lucas contemplating lunch.

Dr. Ding's clinic

Despite all the excitement of the new arrival, it can get a little boring hanging around at the clinic all the time so I took a few pics of the place. On the day of Lucas' birth I actually took very few pictures because I was busy tending to Mummy and keeping Jason entertained. As you can see from my previous pics I was fortunate enough to get in a few snaps at opportune moments and I was able to do that without the camera getting in the way. I can't understand why people would want to use a camera or a video camera the whole time - I mean, what you're after is something to help you remember certain details you might otherwise forget in years to come, an aid to memory if you like, not a substitute for it.

Here you can see Jason playing hard to get with toffee-toting nurses who are quite smitten with Jason. Some of them still remember him when he was a newborn. The toy Jason is playing with is his birthday present from Kelly's mum, a Play-Doh cooking set, which has kept him amused for much of the time - that and his 'robot hand'.

Mummy and baby

Mummy has been breastfeeding Lucas but he also has a go with the moo juice as well sometimes (doesn't look like he likes it that much in this pic, does it?). Kelly's been building up herself up with nutritious traditional meals provided as an extra service by the clinic.
Here she's having some kind of liver herbal soup. In the news recently there was a report about how animals' internal organs contain dioxin so it's now recommended that mothers moderate their consumption of liver, kidney and all the rest during the traditional month of post-natal recuperation. But I reckon it adds flavour. I remmember when Jason was born; I ended up eating most of Kelly's special food which her mother brought to the hospital. It was very tasty!

Hi, I'm Lucas.

I only get the chance to take pictures when it's time for all the babies to have their feed. The low light in that room makes it hard to get a nice, clear shot and I don't think Lucas would be too happy if I used the flash. Still, this cropped picture came out better than I expected.
Although you can't tell from the picture, and it's hard to tell even when you're holding him, Lucas has very dark blue/grey eyes. Of course the colour may change as he gets older. He also has extremely fine, fair eyebrows.

Collage of June 27, 2005

Thought I'd make a quick collage of the main events of the day, starting with leaving the house, arriving at Dr. Ding's clinic, signing the consent forms (note the red thumb prints - one mine, one Kelly's!), waiting for the cervix to dilate, through to the last few minutes before delivery and then finally - Lucas.

Hello, World!

Lucas was born at 8:44 p.m., Monday, June 27, weighing in at exactly 3000 grams. Mother and baby are doing fine. This is the best shot I could get through the window - they wouldn't let me in! I'll be posting more pics later. Happy birthday, Lucas!

Happy birthday, Jason - and Lucas!

Today's the big day for Jason, but because it's a Monday we had his little birthday bash (a Hello Kitty cake and a few of his friends over in the evening) on Saturday. I didn't take any photos but I used the movie clip function on my camera to capture the candle blowing bit.
Here's Jason using his robot hand to grab Mummy's purse on Sunday at Papa's, a nice pizza place near Sogo dept store. That's Kelly's Mum in the middle looking on in amusement. She came down for the day and will be back at weekends to help take care of Mother and babe. Which brings me to another BIG DAY which is Lucas's 'birth day.' That's right - K is going in to have the baby today, so Lucas and Jason will have the same birthday. Isn't it a little strange that we don't celebrate birthdays on the day of someone's birth? Well, I've decided that's silly. Later today I'm going to be singing Happy Birthday and afterwards I'm going to get a birthday cake for Lucas - with no candles!
I'll be posting LOADS of photos of Lucas so stand by with that mouse wheel.

How aliens see Taiwan

A nice big aerial photo of Taiwan. Click to enlarge.

Benign girl

Another test post using Internet Explorer this time - a little faster. As with the dinosaur picture I selected the small inline picture but if you click on it you can get a larger version which you can make even bigger if you click again (at bottom right if you're using Explorer).

What I like about this method is that the text can be placed to the right or left of the picture. Bit of variety. Anyway, what do you think of 'benign girl'? Bet Barbie doesn't have a cell phone as cool as that! By the way, did you know that back in the day Taiwan used to make over half the world's Barbies? Here's an excerpt from a telegraph article about it.

In Taiwan, the Barbie Doll is history. The world's favourite plastic model is no longer made here, but is still revered - so much so that the town of Taishan has opened a museum to her. On show are bridal Barbies, Barbies in combat gear, Barbies in Chinese dresses. But, more tellingly, there are the grainy photographs of cheerful young women flocking from all over the island to work in a factory nearby. The factory was opened by Mattel, Barbie's American maker, back in 1967, and proved to be a trailblazer for the "outsourcing" phenomenon that made eastern Asia the workshop of the world. At one point, half the world's Barbies were made here. Within 20 years, Taiwan's labour force had moved up the prosperity ladder and, in 1987, Mattel moved on - to the Chinese mainland, where wages are lower. Now, the daughters of Taiwan's first Mattel employees are in computers and public relations.

Behind you!

Just posting this as a test. Now you can directly upload without having to use the Hello software. It seems to work but it takes much, much longer than when using Hello. With this photo I tried many times to get the flash just right. Either the flash lit the background ground but Jason was 'bleached out' or, J was OK but the background was dark as in this pic. I suppose that's the limitation of using a point-and-shoot camera.

and then the heavens opened

I recommend going to one of these tea shops when it's raining. There's a completely different feel to the place. I like this shot; can't explain why. Perhaps it just reminds me of that afternoon. 

Feeding the fat goldfish

This was taken several weeks ago. Our neighbour was having some very noisy work done on the house which thankfully is finished now so we decided to go out for the afternoon and what better place to 'chill out' than at the 'Gung du yuan' tea shop just down the road. The sun was out here but later it was pouring with rain - which was also nice in a way. 

Toys 'R' Us

A trip to Toys 'R' Us. It's Jason's birthday on Monday so we thought we'd go to get his present on Saturday. We got a 3D snakes and ladders game and a mechanical robot hand (you squeeze the lever to grab something). As you can see Kelly is huuuge. She is going on Monday to have the baby - so little brother is going to have the same birthday as his big brother! 

"Art Attack"

Have you seen the kids art program called Art Attack? Jason loves it. Well that bloke with the poofy eighties haircut always makes a special picture that is meant to be viewed from above so Jason decided he could do the same thing using his toys.  

Beautiful insect on the roof

Nearly stepped on this lovely insect while I was on the roof hanging clothes. Looks like a wasp-like moth or a moth-like wasp.  

Horrible slimey thing in the kitchen

It was hanging from the ceiling by a gooey thread but by the time I had got the camera it had dropped to the floor. We've been getting great fat slugs as well, but a line of salt by the back door has literally stopped them in their tracks. Slugs I can handle - I chuck 'em back in the garden usually, but these flatworms, no - they have to die... 

Our neighbour's construction project

Bang! bang! bang! Drill! Drill! Bang! Bang!.....The nightmare begins. Notice the condition of the brick wall on the first (ground) floor - that was built only a year ago but it looks like a 20-year-old wall. You can see the previous landlord in one of the pictures smearing cement over the outside of the wall. He only did that because it rained heavily and rainwater leaked into his kitchen. This 2-storey metal box will be rented out to university students according to the workers who are building it.