Things have been busy. First, last week was Chinese New Year so the kids had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off, Chris had Thursday and Friday, so we've had a bit of a holiday. We stayed home and just hung around the pool, on Friday night we had a last minute BBQ with a group of Aussie families living here in our condo. It was a great night and for the second time in less than a week I had a bottle of champagne. Gotta say I'm getting a little worried about how easy it is to drink a whole bottle. Anyway, it was a great time and we're planning to do it again.
Saturday we went to the home of Chris' boss and were introduced into the culture in a big way. On Chinese New Year you're supposed to give out little red envolopes with money in them to all the single people. The money has to be new notes and in even numbers. The kids grumbled and groaned for three days about going but when we got home and they counted up their little red envelopes they were asking when were we going to the next place. They ended up with $74! Each! I think Chinese New Year is a hit.
I spent some time writing even with the kids and Chris around, I actually managed to get a few things sorted out. I'll update the word count some time today. We're getting close to the end now and things are a little tricky, especially now that the 'big' secret has popped its head out of the box. Trey hasn't quite worked it out but he's not far off.
I was planning for the secret to be revealed just before the black moment but as usual it's not my decision and I don't have my hands on the wheel. I'm just along for the ride.
On Saturday and Sunday I had organised to take part in an online workshop. The thing was it was based in the US so time zones kind of got in the way. When I was awake they were asleep and vice versa. Luckily it was done in a forum so the time zones didn't affect it too much. I still learnt plenty and got some really great resource material, plus there were quite a few published authors attending as well so I took the opportunity to ask questions.
Monday morning and everyone was back to school and work and I had peace and quiet again. Chris came home early so I thought oh oh, bad day. I of course was in the middle of finishing a review but for some reason because I'm sitting in the house no one thinks I'm actually working so they just start talking like I'm sitting there waiting for them to come home. I was getting a little cranky with him when he asked if I had much more to read before I was finished. I really wanted to tell him to POQ but being the good wife I put the book down and said okay what? He wanted to show me something. Show me something? Jeez the man can be annoying, but I went along with him anyway. Yes I had to leave the lounge in our room where I was comfortable but hey, it's best to give in and then they leave you alone, right? So I follow him to the lounge room when he starts carrying on about it not being a very valentine's type present but it's to show his support of me in my aim to be published, plus it's an investment for his 'kept man retirement' and I'm thinking the man has lost it completely. Finally after all the years in the high stressed job his poor little brain has up and left the building. He's pointing to these two big boxes like he's the best thing since sliced bread and I'm looking at them wondering what the hell he's getting at. But then I took a closer look.
OH MY GOD!!!!
It's a PC!!
He's bought me a brand new PC!
I now have on my desk, not that I've got it all worked out yet and we have to get the thingy to hook it to the internet, but it's sitting there on my desk all shiny and new. Plus it's from Dell so it's a custom order or something and he's gonna go through it all with me later. It will apparently be really fast and it has so much memory that I won't have to worry about keeping all our photos on a back up device and pulling it out whenever I want to use any. I still think he's gone a little mad because it didn't take nearly as much nagging as it usually does. I think it might have helped that we had to do the crash and rebuild of my laptop the other week and it's better now but still has some interesting issues. The only problem is it's got vista and I'm on XP plus I'll have to get used to word 2007 which is different from 2003 and I only just got the hang of that! But who cares, I got a new PC!
Things will be a little quiet while I work out what's what and get myself organised, again. I still hope to get On A Wing And A Prayer finished in the next few days then it's polish/edit and submit. (scary) I still have my laptop, and believe me it's a
laptop at the moment. Once I've got the internet on the PC things should be a lot easier.
Now I'm off to work out how to transfer files and things. Should be fun. NOT! You know me, not very computer savvy but I'm learning.
Excercise, stretch the mind as well as your muscles, learn something new.
Rachel C
Outside our room, which was on the 32nd floor, the atrium was full of all these lights, it was an amazing sight. We made our way to dinner where I got a rose and a bottle of Pure Poison perfume. The meal was seven courses of the most amazing tasting food, oh, except for the fried ducks liver which Chris said was like eating a wet sponge. How he'd know what a wet sponges was like is something I'm not even going to ask.
This is our breakfast tray. Delivered to our room. Underneath is our cooked to order bacon, eggs, muffins, toast, pastries, hashbrowns and grilled tomatoes. It's a wonder we didn't roll out of there on Saturday. When I won I was told it was valued at over $900 Singapore but we did a little calculating and with the room, dinner, champagne and breakfast it was more like $1500. The room alone is worth $1000 a night! And people live like this all the time! It was a fantastic night and because we don't do things like this very often, well, never, it was even more fantastic.
