A walk on the island

Before leaving Xiamen, we went for a walk on Gulangyu island where there are lots of crumbling foreign houses and winding lanes. It was warm and relaxed - very pleasant.

DIY dentistry

Private dental care is expensive and takes time to organise. Tristan had a shard of tooth poking through his gum that kept annoying him; Lou had just seen the cost of braces and didn't want another trip to the dentist and Tim had ... a set of pliers. The oddest thing was that it worked.

Kisses sweetie

Verity heard that they're looking for children to model things and thought she'd practice ...

Product Footprints, contracts & tax

Tim went to Shanghai on Tuesday to start a pilot to analyse the carbon footprint of a set of products. He came back on Wednesday night then had to work until 2am to try to get contracts in place before year-end and to make sure that he could pay his tax bill. Paying tax is complicated in China - it has taken weeks of emails and conversations to get the estimate right and today it took over an hour in the bank to pay it; he now has to pay it monthly so he hopes it will be better next time round.

Verity's Teacher

Verity's Teacher also had to dress-up ...

Pippy Longstocking

Verity had to dress-up as a character from a book ...

Confirmed carnivore!

Here's a conversation that Lou had with Theo today:
Theo, looking at a roast chicken on the dining table "Is that a dead chicken?"
Lou: "Yes"
Theo "Does everyone eat dead chickens?"
Lou "Not everyone, vegetarians like Verity don't. She decided that she didn't want to eat dead animals when she was your age."
Theo, after thinking for a moment "I like dead chicken, it's really tasty; can I eat the head?"