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We were greeted early this Easter morning with a flurry of snowflakes. The weather forecast for today is “temperature: 0 C (min), 3 C (max); weather: heavy snow”!
The temperatures have been going down.We went shopping at Oxford Circus on Good Friday. It was very cold that day so we bought some gloves for ourselves. We managed to find a very nice coat for Qianyi too.
On our way back, we stopped by the beautiful park near our place, Kensington Gardens. Qianyi was running around happily and kept singing the song “Do Re Mi”. She felt like she’s Maria in her favourite musical DVD “The Sound of Music” which we bought recently! 
Princess Diana lived at Kensington Palace from her wedding day till she got a divorce. We were happy to see Princess Diana Memorial Playground there. It’s quite crowded but it’s a fun place for kids. Our little darling refused to leave although it’s getting really chilly. Her cheeks became rosy.
When we saw the dark clouds, we had to force her to leave. While we were walking home, it started raining. The wind was very strong.. it’s so hard to hold an umbrella. Suddenly, the little one screamed into my ear when tiny ice stones hit her body. We realized it’s actually sleeting!
Yesterday we let her put on her new coat. It looks nice, much warmer but a bit heavy. She hates it. She cried and shouted and tried to remove it when we were out of our apartments lobby, facing the falling snowflakes. We had to give her the old red coat in the end.:(
This long weekend is really chilly. We definitely didn’t expect to see snow in spring. Happy Easter everyone!
My little girl is the only Chinese at Queensborough Nursery. Or, I should say, she’s the only Asian there.
“Qianyi” is a very special name to them. So far, nobody could call her name correctly. They kept asking me how to pronounce it. One of the teachers wrote the pronunciation down…”chin ee”. That isn’t quite right but it’s close enough.
“Is she crying?” Ms Elena spotted her watery left eye. Qianyi was diagnosed with blocked tear duct at 4 months. Her left eye is always full of tears. The symptoms are more noticeable here in London because of the wind and cold. Her left eye is constantly teary. When she’s having fun in the garden, you can see her tears rolling down her left cheek because it’s really chilly and windy out there.
Today I left her at school alone. When I called to check if she’s doing ok after I left quietly without saying goodbye to her, her class teacher (or group teacher, she’s under Blue group), Ms Shantelle wasn’t available. Ms Jean who answered my call told me Qianyi was crying but wasn’t distressed. When I went to pick her up later, Ms Shantelle told me Qianyi didn’t cry at all and she took part in the Easter hunt! I guess Ms Jean must have spotted Qianyi’s watery eye and thought she was crying.
Qianyi goes to school 4 times a week because Wed is fully booked. She loves to be in the garden so much but it’s really cold out there. I was trembling myself when I was standing there just to watch her. I think her coat is not warm enough but the shops here are already selling Spring clothes.
She’s doing quite well so far (with me around). She would walk around happily looking for interesting stuff. But she would come to me when the teachers were trying to tell her to do something. She couldn’t sit still. She burst into tears and wanted me to carry her when a teacher was trying to be firm with her. I noticed the teachers here are quite strict, very different from her teachers in Singapore. She’ll have a hard time there if she behaves badly.
We are settling in well in London. We went to Regent Street last Sunday by Underground. It takes around 5 mins to walk to the Underground station. Qianyi can travel for free here. She had a great time at Hamleys, the world’s best known and largest toy store.
Qianyi and I visit Tesco Metro everyday to buy groceries and food. We are staying at a very convenient place. Shops, restaurants, post office, schools, medical centre are all within walking distance. I didn’t cook on the first two days here. We just bought take-away food from a Malaysian restaurant nearby. We were so happy to see the restaurant because we missed Malaysian food very much.
I don’t like the frying pan provided in the apartment so I went to buy a non-stick frying pan. Cooking’s so much easier now.
When it’s raining, we prefer to stay at home because it’s really windy and chilly out there.
We went to the library yesterday. I found the adult library but couldn’t find the children one. It’s just slightly further away from the adult library according to the map. Maybe it’s not that near after all.
We visited two nurseries this morning. One of them is actually for younger kids, not very suitable for Qianyi. I like the other one and Qianyi enjoyed herself very much there especially at the outdoor playground. She’ll start school next Mon. I’ll have to stay with her for the first two weeks. Hope she can learn something there while having fun with the kids.
My little girl loves sitting on the window sill at home to enjoy the scenery outside. The sky’s very beautiful here.
Four cleaning ladies came to our apartment this morning. All are quite big-sized. Our small apartment was really crowded when they were here.
One lady was in the bathroom. Our towels are changed once a week. One was in our “tiny” kitchen cum living-room cum dining-room. She cleaned the kitchen, replaced the dishwasher tablet, wiped the dustbin, replaced the bin bag and went on to wipe the tv, table etc. The other two were working together to change the bed sheets for the two bedrooms. They cleaned and wiped almost everything.
It’s kind of weird to let outsiders do the cleaning for me. In fact, I tidied up the guest room before they came. It’s like a store room, very messy.
Hello everybody, we are in London now! We arrived at our serviced apartment in Notting Hill on Mar 5. The weather here is still pretty chilly although it’s spring now.
Qianyi’s quite a good girl on the plane. She didn’t make a fuss during the 14 hour flight. She’s the only kid in the business class cabin. We enjoyed the 180-degree lie-flat seats very much. Here’s a photo of her enjoying herself on the plane.
I finished unpacking everything this morning. Guess I’ll have more time to spend with my little one as there’s less housework to do here. Our apartment is very small and it’ll be cleaned by the maids once a week. There’s no washing machine here but we can do our laundry at the common launderette in the basement. It’s free of charge. Hubby’s company will pay for everything except our phone bill. We would leave the heater on even when we are out. It’s always warm enough when we come home. There’s a dishwasher. If I’m lazy, I can just let the machine do the washing up for me.
My little darling is doing well. I called a Montessori nursery nearby today but unfortunately there’s no vacancies. We have to look around for other nurseries.
It’s Hubby’s first day at work in London today. Qianyi fell asleep at 5pm yesterday. She woke up around 3am this morning. The poor girl’s still suffering from jet lag. But it’s good to get up early. She managed to see her daddy off to work and it’s good that Hubby got to kiss his little princess goodbye. She’s always asleep when her daddy left home for work before we came to England.
We’ll try to take some nice snapshots when we are not so tired. Have a nice weekend everybody!
It was Qianyi’s last day at White Lodge yesterday. They said bye-bye to her. They took turns to hug her. Miss Emilia asked me, “Does she understand?” Well, I guess she understands.
Her teachers made her a very big, lovely card. They asked us to send them emails from London. Ah, I’m sure my girl is going to miss her school, teachers and little friends very much.
We are flying off next week. Hope we can find a good school for her in London. I do hope my little darling will enjoy her stay there.
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