a distinct change has come over the weather here. finally we no longer have days in the mid 30s, day after day. the temperature is now in the low 20s. the change is really dramatic- just one day 34, the next 22. it's very welcome. the heat was one of the most sapping things about living here.
of course the fur hats and long scarves i packed are still unnecessary and now won't get worn at all since we are coming home early!
yes, we've changed our return date. the work paul wanted to complete while here is just that and the strain is telling too strongly on me. i think a different country (read- non ex-soviet) and we would have been fine. also had percy not happened along even being here would have been do-able. naturally there is no way i'd want her not to be with us. she is more loved than she'll ever know.
so, we're leaving on sept 14, exactly two weeks from today! i'm much more relaxed and happy now that the end date is not in november like it was originally. we'll be back in syd the first week of october after short visits to paris, london, new york and honolulu.
the leaves are turning brown too. the air is crisper. i'm putting two layers on percy. we can sleep without running the a/c all nite long. as much as i love the sun i can't survive in too much heat- it makes me nasty and wilted.
i wonder how we would have gone in minus degrees? which apparently is the norm for kiev in winter. i'd like to find out one day, just not in kiev, i'm thinking alaska or scotland, that would be great.
percy is sleeping a little better. however she is due to wake up in 8 minutes.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
5 months of age!
happy birthday to you, percy!
percy celebrated her fifth month yesterday. actually, "celebrated" is a little generous; i don't think she took the least notice. we did nothing to mark it. today tho i took her to the american medical centre for a check-up. everything seems fine except that she doesn't seem to have grown any. which is odd because she looks bigger and feels heavier. the doctor put it down to either the four month measurements being generous (you'll remember i took her to the british medical service because they had the same vacs as we do in oz) or his measurements being conservative. so, her head is still 42 centimetres around, her weight has gone up a tiny bit to 6.93kgs (call it 7), and she's gotten shorter! by approximately two centimetres. hmmmmm.... maybe she's spreading out- she does have adorably fat thighs!
regardless the doc said it doesn't mean anything. she's healthy on all other counts and behaves like most other five months old do; apparently. so we'll see again at six months- which will be back in oz!
haven't told you that yet, huh? we're heading home early! topic for another post.
so happy five months to percy and all the other bubs passing this milestone.
Return from Odessa
on sunday we decided to return to kiev via a place called bilhorod-dnistrovsky which has as its main attraction a 13th century fort. (only attraction.)
the lonely planet guide claims the town is 55 kms from odessa and on the train takes 2.5 hours to get there. bullshit on both counts! it's a hell of a lot further than 55km and if the train can do it in 2.5 hours i'll buy a round of tickets.
amusingly we programmed into the gps our trip to b-d and return to kiev as one journey. mistake! as far as we can figure because the trip to b-d and the return used part of the same route the gps got confused and tried to send us in big loops three times. thankfully we trusted ourselves enough by this time to tell the lovely olga (the name we dubbed the gps voice) to bugger off. paper maps and a sense of direction have always done me fine. and no smart arse comments about women not having a sense of direction or being poor navigators! quite frankly i'm one of the best map readers/ navigators/ route plotters you'll ever met. yes, i'm proud of it and no, i'm not going to be modest about it. i'm enraged by men making spastic claims about womens inability to find their way around and women often abdicating responsibility for this easy task. so, nah!!
right, where was i?
the drive to b-d was thru the ukraine country-side and small towns. this is where you really learn about the poverty of the nation. the urban oligarchs have a lot to answer for.
sadly the fort was a bit disappointing. yeah, it's big, old and impressively situated but like everything else in this country, not appreciated. such a relic in australia would have protection orders slapped all over it, interpretations, information boards, restricted access, etc. etc. maybe those things are excessive and we should be allowed to clamber all over centuries old structures and sites. i think a sensible approach to conservation and preservation will enable enjoyable and informative experiences for more people now and future comers.
it was a good place for phoebe to have a run about and for us to get some lunch.
on the authenticity side, the squat toilets were straight from the middle ages! gag, gag, gag!
leaving b-d we thought heading north around the dnister river estuary would be quicker than the southern route we had taken to get there. this excitingly meant going thru moldova! of course, we had not applied for visas to visit this country, nor did we know anything about the border crossing or what reception we might recieve. it was a risk because if border control had sent us back we would have added at least 2 hours to the trip. as it happened we were waved thru without even an inspection of our passports. and no stamp! i do like collecting interesting stamps in the passport. oh well.
paul took over the driving shortly after this. the road between odessa and kiev is quite good- mostly.
we probably should have factored in that a lot of people would be returning to kiev after the long weekend. oops. the traffic was heavy but at least moving. moving at quite a clip sometimes too. with us travelling at 120 - 150kmph we were still being overtaken by black 4wds and luxury cars. if you dare to drive in the left hand lane (remember we're on the other side of the road over here) too slowly for these drivers they will sit a metre off your rear bumper and beep and flash their lights until you move over. yes, at 150kmph. we decided that the blacker the car you own the more you are allowed to do this.
we eventually caught up with a traffic jam the likes of which i have never seen. it's hard to explain but the ukranian attitude to life made it so much worse. our four lane divided highway narrowed to two lanes and then due to road work on a bridge to one lane. a new road, still closed to traffic because it's not finished parralled our road. literally hundreds of vehicles decided that this surface was perfectly fine to drive on to enable them to get to the front of the queue faster. ukranians believe that life is short, in the hands of god and that you only live once. all this might be true but here it translates into an exceedingly selfish, 'i'm out for all i can get and fuck you' attitude. it is not conducive to cooperation. and you know what? it's catchy. we too bumped over the verge and raced down the unfinished road to get ahead. it's so irritating to try to do the right thing and just get smacked in the head for it. we knew everyone around us was cursing us and all their fellow travellers. but that's just it- they weren't fellow travellers, they were obstacles and annoyances. i'm really not getting to the essence of it. just trust me that you want to shoot everyone and drive a tank over their cars because you're so pissed by the whole situation.
we made it over the bridge and the road widened and the traffic return to its normal hell-for-leather speed. (hey david, can you make that a Thing?- where did "hell-for-leather" come from?) an hour or so later we joined yet a worse jam. again, we popped over the verge to the closed road and dashed along to the front of the queue. upon rejoining the proper road we squeezed and squeezed get 'round the one lane left to us. actually i noticed the traffic going in our direction just claimed the on-coming traffic lane as well, forcing anyone (thankfully few) travelling in the opposite direction to use the ditch. oh what fun!
our return trip of approximately 700km took 12 hours to traverse.
phoebe was thankfully mostly entertained by a transportable dvd player that clips on to the back of the front seat. percy gazed about, slept and sang with me for most of the time. she did heartbreakingly cry on a couple of occasions. what can you do? i sang and shushed her and tried to distract her. i really think she's quite a trooper and took it all very well. one of her crying sessions was because she had a pooey nappy. can't blame the kid for that. who wants to sit in shit for hours?
we made it back to our apartment a little after 9pm. percy went to sleep and did her usual four hour stints. i really was hoping she'd be so stimulated and hence exhausted she'd sleep for hours and hours, i could have used the sleep so much myself. alas, not to be.
all up it was a good trip and i'm pleased to have been to odessa and seen something more of ukraine.
the lonely planet guide claims the town is 55 kms from odessa and on the train takes 2.5 hours to get there. bullshit on both counts! it's a hell of a lot further than 55km and if the train can do it in 2.5 hours i'll buy a round of tickets.
amusingly we programmed into the gps our trip to b-d and return to kiev as one journey. mistake! as far as we can figure because the trip to b-d and the return used part of the same route the gps got confused and tried to send us in big loops three times. thankfully we trusted ourselves enough by this time to tell the lovely olga (the name we dubbed the gps voice) to bugger off. paper maps and a sense of direction have always done me fine. and no smart arse comments about women not having a sense of direction or being poor navigators! quite frankly i'm one of the best map readers/ navigators/ route plotters you'll ever met. yes, i'm proud of it and no, i'm not going to be modest about it. i'm enraged by men making spastic claims about womens inability to find their way around and women often abdicating responsibility for this easy task. so, nah!!
right, where was i?
the drive to b-d was thru the ukraine country-side and small towns. this is where you really learn about the poverty of the nation. the urban oligarchs have a lot to answer for.
sadly the fort was a bit disappointing. yeah, it's big, old and impressively situated but like everything else in this country, not appreciated. such a relic in australia would have protection orders slapped all over it, interpretations, information boards, restricted access, etc. etc. maybe those things are excessive and we should be allowed to clamber all over centuries old structures and sites. i think a sensible approach to conservation and preservation will enable enjoyable and informative experiences for more people now and future comers.
it was a good place for phoebe to have a run about and for us to get some lunch.
on the authenticity side, the squat toilets were straight from the middle ages! gag, gag, gag!
leaving b-d we thought heading north around the dnister river estuary would be quicker than the southern route we had taken to get there. this excitingly meant going thru moldova! of course, we had not applied for visas to visit this country, nor did we know anything about the border crossing or what reception we might recieve. it was a risk because if border control had sent us back we would have added at least 2 hours to the trip. as it happened we were waved thru without even an inspection of our passports. and no stamp! i do like collecting interesting stamps in the passport. oh well.
paul took over the driving shortly after this. the road between odessa and kiev is quite good- mostly.
we probably should have factored in that a lot of people would be returning to kiev after the long weekend. oops. the traffic was heavy but at least moving. moving at quite a clip sometimes too. with us travelling at 120 - 150kmph we were still being overtaken by black 4wds and luxury cars. if you dare to drive in the left hand lane (remember we're on the other side of the road over here) too slowly for these drivers they will sit a metre off your rear bumper and beep and flash their lights until you move over. yes, at 150kmph. we decided that the blacker the car you own the more you are allowed to do this.
we eventually caught up with a traffic jam the likes of which i have never seen. it's hard to explain but the ukranian attitude to life made it so much worse. our four lane divided highway narrowed to two lanes and then due to road work on a bridge to one lane. a new road, still closed to traffic because it's not finished parralled our road. literally hundreds of vehicles decided that this surface was perfectly fine to drive on to enable them to get to the front of the queue faster. ukranians believe that life is short, in the hands of god and that you only live once. all this might be true but here it translates into an exceedingly selfish, 'i'm out for all i can get and fuck you' attitude. it is not conducive to cooperation. and you know what? it's catchy. we too bumped over the verge and raced down the unfinished road to get ahead. it's so irritating to try to do the right thing and just get smacked in the head for it. we knew everyone around us was cursing us and all their fellow travellers. but that's just it- they weren't fellow travellers, they were obstacles and annoyances. i'm really not getting to the essence of it. just trust me that you want to shoot everyone and drive a tank over their cars because you're so pissed by the whole situation.
we made it over the bridge and the road widened and the traffic return to its normal hell-for-leather speed. (hey david, can you make that a Thing?- where did "hell-for-leather" come from?) an hour or so later we joined yet a worse jam. again, we popped over the verge to the closed road and dashed along to the front of the queue. upon rejoining the proper road we squeezed and squeezed get 'round the one lane left to us. actually i noticed the traffic going in our direction just claimed the on-coming traffic lane as well, forcing anyone (thankfully few) travelling in the opposite direction to use the ditch. oh what fun!
our return trip of approximately 700km took 12 hours to traverse.
phoebe was thankfully mostly entertained by a transportable dvd player that clips on to the back of the front seat. percy gazed about, slept and sang with me for most of the time. she did heartbreakingly cry on a couple of occasions. what can you do? i sang and shushed her and tried to distract her. i really think she's quite a trooper and took it all very well. one of her crying sessions was because she had a pooey nappy. can't blame the kid for that. who wants to sit in shit for hours?
we made it back to our apartment a little after 9pm. percy went to sleep and did her usual four hour stints. i really was hoping she'd be so stimulated and hence exhausted she'd sleep for hours and hours, i could have used the sleep so much myself. alas, not to be.
all up it was a good trip and i'm pleased to have been to odessa and seen something more of ukraine.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Odessa
this past weekend we went to odessa.
we drove down with our new mate mark and his sweetie daughter (nearly) two year old phoebe. in fact without mark there would have been no trip as it's his car. and his gps. and his kiev driving experience that got us out of the city in the first place. and safely home again.
the boys starting plotting this trip before i got back from holland. last friday was a public holiday here in ukraine. i think independance or constitution day (or something like that.) so we drove down on friday, explored about on saturday and back on sunday. it's around 500km one way. which doesn't sound too bad but with a baby and a toddler lots of stops are necessary to feed, stretch legs, change nappies, run to burn up energy, swap drivers, take bizarre photographs and the like.
mark and phoebe arrived on our doorstep at 7:15am. we were finishing breakfast but packed up, loaded the car and were outta here at 8am. after the obligatory lap of our end of town taking wrong turns and exclaiming "that's our turn!" as it slid by, and "we're meant to be down there!" as we found ourselves on the wrong bridge, we were on our way at 20 past 8.
we arrived in odessa at 3pm. mark had found and booked an apartment for us to stay in. this is a cheaper option than a hotel with more space. we'd brought an esky and some bags of food with us to be self-sufficient. which is just as well because supermarkets are not ukraine's strong point.
the remainder of friday afternoon and saturday morning we walked about the city centre. odessa is much nicer than kiev in terms of scale, cleanliness and trees. it's smaller, the streets are narrower, the buildings are 2 to 6 storeys rather than 8+ while trees line most of the streets and provide excellent visual relief. they also provide much needed shade. unfortunately during our visit the temperature hovered around 40 degrees!! crap! (or for anthony and pia- carp!) the difference may be due to the tourism dollar odessa needs to attract. ukrainians don't need to go to odessa to get dirt and ugliness, they can stay home for that, so odessa is spruced up better.
i have now seen the potemkin steps!! yay! this was something i did want to experience even before coming to ukraine. experience them i did- have walked up and down all 192 steps at least 3 times, pouring with sweat. i always figured it would be cold, snowy even, with fur hats and great coats... hmmm... maybe i'm associating with the movie too much. sergei eisenstein's 'battleship potemkin' that is.
the steps have a wide concrete baulstrade on either side. they really are just bigger steps. locals sell souvenirs or photo ops from here. we saw a guy with a crocodile and a chameleon, a woman with an owl and a guy with a monkey. we did not get photographs with these merchants of misery as we don't think animals should be treated or exploited in this way.
the baulstrade did provide little phoebe with excellent fun to climb up and down. of course, she's too little to actually 'climb' up or down so mark had to lift her up and down. talk about exhausting- 10 kilo kid in 40 degrees! i said to paul that that would be him in a year or so- he physically blanched.
we returned to the apartment for lunch and a nap. in the afternoon we drove to a beach. there was a bit of trepidation about this as the water and beaches are supposedly not so clean or inviting. plus we weren't entirely sure where we were going! oh well. it turned out fine- as most things in life do. we managed to secure a parking space near the gate that lead down to the path to follow to get to the beach. it was a bit of a hike but we found a shady spot on the sand- sharp little broken shells actually. there really are no beaches like our aussie ones... sigh.
percy was changed into her swimmer bottoms- god she looks cute! slathered in sunscreen, covered with her hat and carried into the black sea! what a little adventurer- her first open water experience is the black sea, her first pool is dubai. i think not many aussie kids can say that.
percy was not completely submerged. partly because i'm not sure how she'd take it and partly because we weren't convinced of the quality of the water. we bobbed with the waves with legs, bum and tummy in. she seemed a little unsure at first but with happy squeals from me and encouragement from her papa she ended up smiling and giggling too. she did not like to sit on the shore and have the waves (really tiny ones) break on her legs and stomach, so we didn't do that for long.
on the topic of seas paulie and i have made an interesting triumvirate. we've swum in the red sea, the dead sea and the black sea. neat.
of course you can't 'swim' in the dead sea. we waded and floated and laughed at each other. that was part of our interesting honeymoon thru egypt and jordan nearly three years ago. story for another day.
our return trip was an exercise in patience, "oh-my-gods", "did you see thats?" and rule breaking. but i'll tell you about that later because darling miss is due to wake up for a feed in five minutes.
we drove down with our new mate mark and his sweetie daughter (nearly) two year old phoebe. in fact without mark there would have been no trip as it's his car. and his gps. and his kiev driving experience that got us out of the city in the first place. and safely home again.
the boys starting plotting this trip before i got back from holland. last friday was a public holiday here in ukraine. i think independance or constitution day (or something like that.) so we drove down on friday, explored about on saturday and back on sunday. it's around 500km one way. which doesn't sound too bad but with a baby and a toddler lots of stops are necessary to feed, stretch legs, change nappies, run to burn up energy, swap drivers, take bizarre photographs and the like.
mark and phoebe arrived on our doorstep at 7:15am. we were finishing breakfast but packed up, loaded the car and were outta here at 8am. after the obligatory lap of our end of town taking wrong turns and exclaiming "that's our turn!" as it slid by, and "we're meant to be down there!" as we found ourselves on the wrong bridge, we were on our way at 20 past 8.
we arrived in odessa at 3pm. mark had found and booked an apartment for us to stay in. this is a cheaper option than a hotel with more space. we'd brought an esky and some bags of food with us to be self-sufficient. which is just as well because supermarkets are not ukraine's strong point.
the remainder of friday afternoon and saturday morning we walked about the city centre. odessa is much nicer than kiev in terms of scale, cleanliness and trees. it's smaller, the streets are narrower, the buildings are 2 to 6 storeys rather than 8+ while trees line most of the streets and provide excellent visual relief. they also provide much needed shade. unfortunately during our visit the temperature hovered around 40 degrees!! crap! (or for anthony and pia- carp!) the difference may be due to the tourism dollar odessa needs to attract. ukrainians don't need to go to odessa to get dirt and ugliness, they can stay home for that, so odessa is spruced up better.
i have now seen the potemkin steps!! yay! this was something i did want to experience even before coming to ukraine. experience them i did- have walked up and down all 192 steps at least 3 times, pouring with sweat. i always figured it would be cold, snowy even, with fur hats and great coats... hmmm... maybe i'm associating with the movie too much. sergei eisenstein's 'battleship potemkin' that is.
the steps have a wide concrete baulstrade on either side. they really are just bigger steps. locals sell souvenirs or photo ops from here. we saw a guy with a crocodile and a chameleon, a woman with an owl and a guy with a monkey. we did not get photographs with these merchants of misery as we don't think animals should be treated or exploited in this way.
the baulstrade did provide little phoebe with excellent fun to climb up and down. of course, she's too little to actually 'climb' up or down so mark had to lift her up and down. talk about exhausting- 10 kilo kid in 40 degrees! i said to paul that that would be him in a year or so- he physically blanched.
we returned to the apartment for lunch and a nap. in the afternoon we drove to a beach. there was a bit of trepidation about this as the water and beaches are supposedly not so clean or inviting. plus we weren't entirely sure where we were going! oh well. it turned out fine- as most things in life do. we managed to secure a parking space near the gate that lead down to the path to follow to get to the beach. it was a bit of a hike but we found a shady spot on the sand- sharp little broken shells actually. there really are no beaches like our aussie ones... sigh.
percy was changed into her swimmer bottoms- god she looks cute! slathered in sunscreen, covered with her hat and carried into the black sea! what a little adventurer- her first open water experience is the black sea, her first pool is dubai. i think not many aussie kids can say that.
percy was not completely submerged. partly because i'm not sure how she'd take it and partly because we weren't convinced of the quality of the water. we bobbed with the waves with legs, bum and tummy in. she seemed a little unsure at first but with happy squeals from me and encouragement from her papa she ended up smiling and giggling too. she did not like to sit on the shore and have the waves (really tiny ones) break on her legs and stomach, so we didn't do that for long.
on the topic of seas paulie and i have made an interesting triumvirate. we've swum in the red sea, the dead sea and the black sea. neat.
of course you can't 'swim' in the dead sea. we waded and floated and laughed at each other. that was part of our interesting honeymoon thru egypt and jordan nearly three years ago. story for another day.
our return trip was an exercise in patience, "oh-my-gods", "did you see thats?" and rule breaking. but i'll tell you about that later because darling miss is due to wake up for a feed in five minutes.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
the proto crawl
or as i like to call it- the catepillar!
on sunday, while still living with rob and phil, percy was on her tummy on our bed with rob and i. we were encouraging her to move by waving toys just out of reach and reacting with wild enthusiasm each time she made an attempt.
she managed to move an entire body length, and this is how she did it;
push up with arms so head and chest are high off the floor/bed, face plant using arms as fulcrums so a tiny amount of forward motion is made, levering up legs 'til standing on toes (who needs knees- we've skipped those) while still face planted so doing a reasonable impression of a down-ward dog yoga pose, push with feet and then collapse. repeat, repeat, repeat! she does look a lot like a catepillar. and she managed to move unaided the length of her body and grab that damn toy!
i really don't know when babies start independant locomotion as i've got no-one to compare her to. i think websites i've looked at or books i read while pregnant (wasn't that an aeon ago?) suggest around 6 months. so i think she's terrific! mind you, she really hasn't done it again. she is rolling with ease to both the left and right sides and occassionally all the way over to her stomach. again, no comparison but terrific in my eyes.
her neck control is complete too. has been for some time. the only time her head flops is when she is still mostly asleep and we pick her up or she is super tired and ready for her sleep or nap.
did i mention her vocal gymnastics!? oh my god- she could yell the building down if it wasn't built in soviet times and prepared for alternative use as a bomb shelter. it's not that she is upset or hurt or anything like that, it's just she can so she does. she has developed the ability to yell in varying pitches with mostly vowel sounds for extended periods of time. i worry she'll pop a vein, or a vocal chord. we are assuming this will pay off later when she is an extremely well recieved opera singer.
at present tho i'm not encouraging her too much. it would be a hell noise to live thru on a 13 hour flight!
on sunday, while still living with rob and phil, percy was on her tummy on our bed with rob and i. we were encouraging her to move by waving toys just out of reach and reacting with wild enthusiasm each time she made an attempt.
she managed to move an entire body length, and this is how she did it;
push up with arms so head and chest are high off the floor/bed, face plant using arms as fulcrums so a tiny amount of forward motion is made, levering up legs 'til standing on toes (who needs knees- we've skipped those) while still face planted so doing a reasonable impression of a down-ward dog yoga pose, push with feet and then collapse. repeat, repeat, repeat! she does look a lot like a catepillar. and she managed to move unaided the length of her body and grab that damn toy!
i really don't know when babies start independant locomotion as i've got no-one to compare her to. i think websites i've looked at or books i read while pregnant (wasn't that an aeon ago?) suggest around 6 months. so i think she's terrific! mind you, she really hasn't done it again. she is rolling with ease to both the left and right sides and occassionally all the way over to her stomach. again, no comparison but terrific in my eyes.
her neck control is complete too. has been for some time. the only time her head flops is when she is still mostly asleep and we pick her up or she is super tired and ready for her sleep or nap.
did i mention her vocal gymnastics!? oh my god- she could yell the building down if it wasn't built in soviet times and prepared for alternative use as a bomb shelter. it's not that she is upset or hurt or anything like that, it's just she can so she does. she has developed the ability to yell in varying pitches with mostly vowel sounds for extended periods of time. i worry she'll pop a vein, or a vocal chord. we are assuming this will pay off later when she is an extremely well recieved opera singer.
at present tho i'm not encouraging her too much. it would be a hell noise to live thru on a 13 hour flight!
back behind the iron curtain
okay, so i know the iron curtain 'fell' some time ago. i think some drapes or blinds went up instead.
percy and i flew out of amsterdam and back to kiev on monday afternoon/night. percy flew well again. she grizzled some but was mostly content to stare around, have milk or play. the flights nearly became a huge mess. we were flying via vienna and due to being an hour late out of amsterdam i had to run thru the terminal (with poor percy bouncing along in the hug-a-bub sling) to make the connection. thankfully i did make it and we landed in kiev on time. unfortunately my suitcase didn't have anyone to hurry it thru the airport and stayed behind. so at midnite on monday i was sitting in the lost and found office filling in a form to get my suitcase delivered the following day- yeah right!! like anything in this miserable country works like that. actually i could have just finished that sentence at 'works.' after about 15 telephone calls to first the lost and found office and then the airline, that were getting increasingly more threatening my suitcase was delivered at 3:30pm on wednesday.
needless to say i had a miserable tuesday and most of wednesday. have you tried to entertain a four month old baby with a towel and a water bottle for 2 days? i'll bet you haven't and i'll bet you couldn't do it either. percy was pissed!! she was all off routine because of the flights and now it was her increasingly desparate mother denying her her toys, bouncer, and books. i spoke to paul a couple of times and he came home to work from here because i sounded so bad- desparate, beaten, weary, frustrated, angry... yes, i bawled a few times. i just wanted a break and for something to go right for once.
well today seems to be much better. percy is back on track with her routine, she's got her toys and all her other belongings and she seems to be sleeping much better too. hey, if the cleaner turns up at 3pm like she's supposed to (and hasn't for the past two weeks) i'm almost prepared to say this is a good day. i don't do great anymore.
percy and i flew out of amsterdam and back to kiev on monday afternoon/night. percy flew well again. she grizzled some but was mostly content to stare around, have milk or play. the flights nearly became a huge mess. we were flying via vienna and due to being an hour late out of amsterdam i had to run thru the terminal (with poor percy bouncing along in the hug-a-bub sling) to make the connection. thankfully i did make it and we landed in kiev on time. unfortunately my suitcase didn't have anyone to hurry it thru the airport and stayed behind. so at midnite on monday i was sitting in the lost and found office filling in a form to get my suitcase delivered the following day- yeah right!! like anything in this miserable country works like that. actually i could have just finished that sentence at 'works.' after about 15 telephone calls to first the lost and found office and then the airline, that were getting increasingly more threatening my suitcase was delivered at 3:30pm on wednesday.
needless to say i had a miserable tuesday and most of wednesday. have you tried to entertain a four month old baby with a towel and a water bottle for 2 days? i'll bet you haven't and i'll bet you couldn't do it either. percy was pissed!! she was all off routine because of the flights and now it was her increasingly desparate mother denying her her toys, bouncer, and books. i spoke to paul a couple of times and he came home to work from here because i sounded so bad- desparate, beaten, weary, frustrated, angry... yes, i bawled a few times. i just wanted a break and for something to go right for once.
well today seems to be much better. percy is back on track with her routine, she's got her toys and all her other belongings and she seems to be sleeping much better too. hey, if the cleaner turns up at 3pm like she's supposed to (and hasn't for the past two weeks) i'm almost prepared to say this is a good day. i don't do great anymore.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
papa's visit
paulie came to visit over the weekend just gone. he arrived late on thursday nite and left mid monday afternoon. it was so good to have him here. while i'm enjoying living in the west rather than eastern europe for these three weeks it is very hard to be away from the love of my life. (he's also kinda handy to change the odd nappy too!) i'm sort of doing the single parent thing- but much easier. i have no idea how single parents do it. they are all heroes. while i'm solely responsible for percy i still have my dinners cooked for me and only do some of the cleaning, washing and shopping. my hosts rob and phil do everything else. i think if i really was on my own i'd be lucky to eat anything other than cereal, i'd go spare within about two days and start talking to the cereal box. so my hat is off to single parents.
on friday paul, rob, percy and i caught the train to brussels. i still can't get over how easy that is. it's like catching the train to newcastle from sydney. we travelled from one country to the next and didn't even notice where the international border was. i think i could enjoy western europe and it's tiny (comparatively) size far more than miles-from-freakin'-anywhere-kiev. maybe that's another adventure for the future...
brussels has a great town square. it's bounded by buildings dating from the 14 and 1500s, has dark cobblestones and looks like i thought kiev might. we had a very yummy lunch in a restaurant overlooking the square, with paul relishing a genuine belgium beer. so much for a low carb diet! we wandered around looking in windows, taking photos, hiked up to the cathedral, bought delicious belgium chocolates (they did not last long), paulie bought 3 bottles of beer to take home and generally behaved just like the tourists we were. percy spent the day in the sling or cradled in our arms and did not seem to mind at all. she slept some on the way there (two and half hours), and a little while walking around. she was over it on the retun trip. she whinged but not badly. we had to change trains so while waiting the 20 minutes for the second train we lay her on the cloth bench so she could wriggle a bit and get a different perspective. she seemed to appreciate this and went back into the sling on me and slept some more before we arrived home.
on saturday we went into den bosch. saturday is market day and the boulevarde festival (theatre) was also on. percy soaked it all up, as i think did paul. we were stopped on a corner by a women with a camera and a microphone who asked paul, he was slinging percy, to sing a song for the baby. part of the festivities apparently. poor woman; i'm sure she was expecting "twinkle, twinkle little star" or something like that. no, she got, after prompting from us, paul singing queen's "we are the champions" while getting percy to do the actions- including air guitaring the riff in the middle. (is riff the right word, or am i just making myself look like the complete music twat that i am?) regardless, it was hilarious. i do have a version of paul and percy performing this song on a disc but i haven't a clue how to put it on this blog. one day i'll get edumacated about it and will do so.
sunday and monday we hung around at home and took some long walks about town. it was heavenly. except the bit where i got a blocked milk duct- oowwchhh! this lasted most of sunday, during which i was walking with my left arm held out from my body as the block was on the left side of my left breast and hurt to be looked at, let alone touched! thankfully it cleared after consistently feeding percy on the left side first and some firm massaging. on monday i was fine again. does throw the whole illness-in-a-foreign-country thing into stark relief. quite a worry. cross fingers that nothing else happens to any of us.
on monday paul left at 3pm to catch his flight back. it was very depressing. however a four and a half month old baby doesn't leave much time for sadness. i'm sure she enjoyed having him here and is aware that he's not here now, but she doesn't ache for him like i do. percy gets a feed at 3pm and then is up for a few hours. no time to dwell on my now left the country husband.
i'm returning next monday. i'm trying to find the word that describes having to return to kiev and desparately wanting to be with paulie again. it would be much nicer if paulie could come and live here. i think 'annoying' is the best fit. don't want to be back in that country, don't want to be away from paul.
so it was lovely to have percy's papa visit us. we had a very pleasurable weekend, sorry it wasn't weeks instead of days.
percy was able to show off that she can now 'stand' for much longer than 5 seconds too.
on friday paul, rob, percy and i caught the train to brussels. i still can't get over how easy that is. it's like catching the train to newcastle from sydney. we travelled from one country to the next and didn't even notice where the international border was. i think i could enjoy western europe and it's tiny (comparatively) size far more than miles-from-freakin'-anywhere-kiev. maybe that's another adventure for the future...
brussels has a great town square. it's bounded by buildings dating from the 14 and 1500s, has dark cobblestones and looks like i thought kiev might. we had a very yummy lunch in a restaurant overlooking the square, with paul relishing a genuine belgium beer. so much for a low carb diet! we wandered around looking in windows, taking photos, hiked up to the cathedral, bought delicious belgium chocolates (they did not last long), paulie bought 3 bottles of beer to take home and generally behaved just like the tourists we were. percy spent the day in the sling or cradled in our arms and did not seem to mind at all. she slept some on the way there (two and half hours), and a little while walking around. she was over it on the retun trip. she whinged but not badly. we had to change trains so while waiting the 20 minutes for the second train we lay her on the cloth bench so she could wriggle a bit and get a different perspective. she seemed to appreciate this and went back into the sling on me and slept some more before we arrived home.
on saturday we went into den bosch. saturday is market day and the boulevarde festival (theatre) was also on. percy soaked it all up, as i think did paul. we were stopped on a corner by a women with a camera and a microphone who asked paul, he was slinging percy, to sing a song for the baby. part of the festivities apparently. poor woman; i'm sure she was expecting "twinkle, twinkle little star" or something like that. no, she got, after prompting from us, paul singing queen's "we are the champions" while getting percy to do the actions- including air guitaring the riff in the middle. (is riff the right word, or am i just making myself look like the complete music twat that i am?) regardless, it was hilarious. i do have a version of paul and percy performing this song on a disc but i haven't a clue how to put it on this blog. one day i'll get edumacated about it and will do so.
sunday and monday we hung around at home and took some long walks about town. it was heavenly. except the bit where i got a blocked milk duct- oowwchhh! this lasted most of sunday, during which i was walking with my left arm held out from my body as the block was on the left side of my left breast and hurt to be looked at, let alone touched! thankfully it cleared after consistently feeding percy on the left side first and some firm massaging. on monday i was fine again. does throw the whole illness-in-a-foreign-country thing into stark relief. quite a worry. cross fingers that nothing else happens to any of us.
on monday paul left at 3pm to catch his flight back. it was very depressing. however a four and a half month old baby doesn't leave much time for sadness. i'm sure she enjoyed having him here and is aware that he's not here now, but she doesn't ache for him like i do. percy gets a feed at 3pm and then is up for a few hours. no time to dwell on my now left the country husband.
i'm returning next monday. i'm trying to find the word that describes having to return to kiev and desparately wanting to be with paulie again. it would be much nicer if paulie could come and live here. i think 'annoying' is the best fit. don't want to be back in that country, don't want to be away from paul.
so it was lovely to have percy's papa visit us. we had a very pleasurable weekend, sorry it wasn't weeks instead of days.
percy was able to show off that she can now 'stand' for much longer than 5 seconds too.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Wealth of Nations
just something rob pointed out to me that i thought was quite insightful...
you know you're in one of the wealthiest nations in europe when the zebra pedestrian crossings are not painted white stripes on the road but white marble inlaid in the road surface. not all of them, but a good portion. makes you think, huh?
you know you're in one of the wealthiest nations in europe when the zebra pedestrian crossings are not painted white stripes on the road but white marble inlaid in the road surface. not all of them, but a good portion. makes you think, huh?
Saturday, August 4, 2007
percy in the netherlands
great, now the bloody blog site is in dutch!
oh well, at least that's easier to interpret than russian.
we've been living with rob and phil for a week now in their lovely apartment in the gorgeous town of den bosch. apologies for the silence- i've been enjoying sleeping without jackhammers, drinking the water from the tap, walking on level footpaths, hey, just footpaths are novel, speaking english (as opposed to pointing and grunting), eating identifiable food and indulging in hot chocolates and the local treat a 'bosche ball.' which is a pastry filled with cream and surrounded with chocolate.
it's going to be hard to return to the developing world....
percy is coming along in leaps and bounds. she is determined to crawl but hasn't quite figured out the co-ordination of both arms and both legs at the same time. she'll alternate from holding her head up high with arms out to face planting with her butt in the air as her legs come up under her. i'm sure she'll get it eventually. it's also entertaining in a mean sort of way that she usually face plants into a big spew she did while she had the head end up. i know, i'm cruelly laughing at my baby's attempts to become mobile. i do clean her up- promise!
she also loves standing up. her version of standing; which is me holding her upright and her taking her weight on her feet. i think the longest she'll take her weight is 5 seconds. okay, hardly running marathons but 5 seconds is a long time for a baby. it becomes a long time for her mums arms too. hoisting that weight up and down is tiring.
she likes her new books being read to her too. we usually sit on the floor with her between my legs and hold the book in front of us. i fairly confident she looks at each page with interest for a while- until she tries to jam in in her mouth! everything is mouth bound these days. for the past few weeks she is determined to get everything she possibly can taste tested. invariably the taste test continues over many days and results in drool coating anything that comes in contact with her. oh well, how harmful is baby drool?
she also enjoys her baths immensely. it's cute to watch her writhe around and splash and suck on the face cloth. if we go into the bathroom before the bath is full (baby version full) she stares at the water coming out of the tap with a very determined look on her face. i wonder if she is trying to figure out where it's coming from. unfortunately i'll have to stop her drinking her bath water when we go back to kiev. you'd think a city of 3 million people would sort out it's bloody water supply.
the only thing percy does badly is sleep. which is the worst thing because then i don't sleep either. i'm hoping paul is enjoying some nights of sleeping thru while we are away. percy sleeps for four hours and then wakes. nearly invariably. sometimes she still only does 3 hours. this is at nite. her day time sleeps, which are supposed to be 2 hours long often only make one sleep cycle: 35-40 minutes before she wakes and needs to be resettled. and the resettling sucks.
anyways, case in point- she's awake and crying, ought to go to her... don't really want to. i'm a bit over this baby thing. just selfish i guess but it gets so frustrating and tiring and depressing.
see ya
oh well, at least that's easier to interpret than russian.
we've been living with rob and phil for a week now in their lovely apartment in the gorgeous town of den bosch. apologies for the silence- i've been enjoying sleeping without jackhammers, drinking the water from the tap, walking on level footpaths, hey, just footpaths are novel, speaking english (as opposed to pointing and grunting), eating identifiable food and indulging in hot chocolates and the local treat a 'bosche ball.' which is a pastry filled with cream and surrounded with chocolate.
it's going to be hard to return to the developing world....
percy is coming along in leaps and bounds. she is determined to crawl but hasn't quite figured out the co-ordination of both arms and both legs at the same time. she'll alternate from holding her head up high with arms out to face planting with her butt in the air as her legs come up under her. i'm sure she'll get it eventually. it's also entertaining in a mean sort of way that she usually face plants into a big spew she did while she had the head end up. i know, i'm cruelly laughing at my baby's attempts to become mobile. i do clean her up- promise!
she also loves standing up. her version of standing; which is me holding her upright and her taking her weight on her feet. i think the longest she'll take her weight is 5 seconds. okay, hardly running marathons but 5 seconds is a long time for a baby. it becomes a long time for her mums arms too. hoisting that weight up and down is tiring.
she likes her new books being read to her too. we usually sit on the floor with her between my legs and hold the book in front of us. i fairly confident she looks at each page with interest for a while- until she tries to jam in in her mouth! everything is mouth bound these days. for the past few weeks she is determined to get everything she possibly can taste tested. invariably the taste test continues over many days and results in drool coating anything that comes in contact with her. oh well, how harmful is baby drool?
she also enjoys her baths immensely. it's cute to watch her writhe around and splash and suck on the face cloth. if we go into the bathroom before the bath is full (baby version full) she stares at the water coming out of the tap with a very determined look on her face. i wonder if she is trying to figure out where it's coming from. unfortunately i'll have to stop her drinking her bath water when we go back to kiev. you'd think a city of 3 million people would sort out it's bloody water supply.
the only thing percy does badly is sleep. which is the worst thing because then i don't sleep either. i'm hoping paul is enjoying some nights of sleeping thru while we are away. percy sleeps for four hours and then wakes. nearly invariably. sometimes she still only does 3 hours. this is at nite. her day time sleeps, which are supposed to be 2 hours long often only make one sleep cycle: 35-40 minutes before she wakes and needs to be resettled. and the resettling sucks.
anyways, case in point- she's awake and crying, ought to go to her... don't really want to. i'm a bit over this baby thing. just selfish i guess but it gets so frustrating and tiring and depressing.
see ya
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
the real world
very quick post to let you know that we arrived safely and have been haveing a good time since. percy is settling well (again), not brilliantly but given the new environments this kid is continually exposed to i think she's coping very well.
den bose, rob and phil's home town, is adorable. so unlike kiev!
she's waking, i better go. p.s. i've caught a cold- yippee.
more later...
den bose, rob and phil's home town, is adorable. so unlike kiev!
she's waking, i better go. p.s. i've caught a cold- yippee.
more later...
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