Tag Archives: crazy Chinese family

Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Germans, Our cute son

Baby Pool Party

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This summer so far has been terrible. Bad weather all the time with a few exception such as during the City Festival or The Big Medieval Market. However things changed now as a “heat wave” from North Africa is pushing its way through Europe at the moment. All the past weeks we had tops 20 degrees celsius (~68 degrees fahrenheit) but since yesterday the temperatures are rising. Today we had here in North Germany, at least according to the thermometer in my car, up to 26 degrees celsius and it will rise to even 38/39 degrees this weekend in some parts of Germany! (here perhaps only 34 degrees celsius but well, better than sudden snow or the like).

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The mandatory “MIL with Nathan posing pic”

 

So what to do with a little baby being all sweaty all day long with no chance to cool down? You buy him an inflatable baby pool! I actually bought this one already few weeks ago but it didn’t find any use until now. It is a simple pool for little kids but enough to keep a cool head with these rising temperatures. Now it wouldn’t fit into our balcony but my dear parents who are still for a few months in Finland are living just below us and have a huge balcony. As we don’t really want to have a lobster baby we set up the pool in the shades and the water splashing time began. Even I found a few moments to get roasted in the sun. Normally I don’t “extra” go and try to get some tan as in the past years I always went for swimming  practice in outdoor pools during the summer and it did the trick. However there is no chance for me right now to go swimming due to multiple reasons and I saw a pictures of me the other day: Me standing in our garage with white walls, me wearing a white shirt and blueish shorts, guess what it looked like…yes, like blueish shorts and dark blond hairs floating in midair! So you can guess why I decided to get a few minutes of roasting today and perhaps again tomorrow…

What are your methods to keep cool during hot summer days?

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Chinese Wife, Crazy Chinese People

Hopeless Plans

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Our China holidays are getting closer and closer. Sure I am very happy and can’t wait for the trip however I am also worried. The thing is that my wife got again some plans on what we should do there and what places to visit. For any outsider this must sound great but you just don’t know my wife so let me explain.

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One of my biggest victories: Getting my couch potato wife up the mountain

Over the years we had many plans to travel around when being in China. Those plans always stayed plans as there is something magical happening as soon as my wife enters her parents home. The person who had all those great ideas about visiting some nice places basically disintegrates in front of my eyes as the couch potatoeism spreads through her body. Yes, my wife is a notorious coach potato when being in China. There is no bigger joy for her than lying on the sofa, having her favorite snacks and drinks within arms reach and watching TV all day long. Within seconds all plans are forgotten or not important enough anymore. Who wants to see the beautiful nature in Jiuzhaigou 九寨沟 when you have the 100th rerun of 武林外传 My own Swordsman in the TV, some bubble tea and 大白兔White Rabbit candy?

I think you understand now the dilemma I am facing as my wife is starting to make all kinds of plans for our upcoming holiday. Each time she gets me excited about all those places we plan to visit and in the end we just stay for several weeks in Xi’an and the only times she leaves the apartment on her on free will is in order to go out eating. So what has she planned thus far? Now she no longer wants to visit places in China but is doing research on nice travel destination in Asia which we can reach rather quick (and cheap) from China. Few months ago she made some plans to go to the Jeju Island as her parents had invited us for such trip. Then suddenly she started checking on Thailand but then it was Jeju Island again. This morning she woke me up by pushing her mobile phone in my face. No, she didn’t try to kill me but to show some wonderful pictures of Bali.

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Some river in some mountains

While still in bed she started searching for plane tickets, hotels and whatnot all. She even contacted one friend in China if she wants to come with us there together with her little family (they also got a one year old child). Right now I am myself looking up what Bali is offering for tourists and sad but true, I am excited about it. By now I should have learned from the past years but still I really get hyped every time she makes plans because somehow I still have hope that one of those plans will become reality. Though our big plans never worked out we still went sometimes at least to nice places around Xi’an such as Mount Hua or the Mountain Range near Qinghua Mountain. However these destinations are far from the original plans we had before each holiday in China. For now I also hope that MIL won’t suddenly decide it would be a great idea to join us in case the Bali plan ever becomes reality!

 

Are you a couch potato?

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Crazy Family, Crazy Germans, Our cute son

Plöner See

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Remember when I wrote about the city festival in my hometown? There I mentioned that the first two days had superb weather but then everything was drowned by a rainstorm. Well, on that first day of bad weather we went to the Plöner See (Lake Plön) which is about 40 minutes away by car from our place.

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Cooling down those little feet

Originally we went there because we were invited to try out sailing however once we arrived there was no wind at all. The air was heavy due to an upcoming thunderstorm. Though there was no sunshine  it surely was hot with around 30 degrees celsius due to the heavy air. So while waiting for some wind we decided to enjoy the time at the lake as besides us was also another family with their baby there. As we had enough snacks with us we hoped that time would pass quickly till some wind would show up. The children surely loved to play in the water and also to discover the playground even though they were still too young for it. I guess the highlights for Nathan was to run naked around the beach and of course the cable pulley (is it even the right name for it?).

 

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The rope pulley

In the end there was plenty of wind however it was combined with heavy rain and before mentioned thunderstorm so we just went home without any sailing. Perhaps next time we will be more lucky and can finally try out some sailing as it at least look pretty interesting.

Have you gone sailing on a lake before? How is it?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts.

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