I've bought myself some time! I found I had doubly posted a post a while back so now this post is really number 99...these are the last of our 'formal' pictures we had done.

Nothing like a little 'healthy' marital competition...

Cheater...

He beat me at Scrabble last night too...IDEOLOGY...a triple word, a double letter and all seven tiles used (which means an extra 50 points)...

*sigh* Spelling was never my strong point...

PS. Don't you love that you can tell I'm wearing a hair piece? Its totally a different colour to my hair and they didn't bother to photo-shop that part!

Post number 99...this is my last chance to think of something seethingly brilliant to write for my 100th. Why I put this kind of un-needed pressure on myself, I don't know. Should I let it roll over into a Wordless Wednesday? Should I talk about the newest member of our family? Should I stop blogging forever because I've created such a monster called "100th Post" in my mind that I just can't live up to my own expectations?

And then, I think, you probably all don't care. In all probability, you most likely didn't even realize that I'm almost at the 100th mark...

Have you read Jason's post yet? You should read his before you continue with mine...

You see, I feel the need to have to justify the fact that I went to take a shower during what he now considers one of his most favourite movies in the world: IP Man. Which I also think is a strange name for the movie since its neither the Chinese title or the meaning of the Chinese title. But seriously, you should watch it (if you're into Kung Fu flicks)...and when you do, you can tell me what its about. Ok, granted his Chinese is better than mine -- but how can you watch a film when you don't understand the entire dialogue??? What if you miss something very important -- like when the wife says 'we should call the baby after your kung fu master who died saving us from the Japanese and preferred his wife's green tea to all others?' The jist of the conversation is that you know they're talking about naming the baby. My point is the detail! How can you watch a movie and be satisfied not understanding the detail???

This is the second time we've tried to watch this movie -- I can't find it in English no matter what the cover says. It stinks. I think, its like Americans trying to watch "The Castle" for the first time with no understanding of the Australian culture. Anyway, I just find it awfully frustrating not knowing what's going on in movies, so that's why I went to take a shower.

Also another question is left burning in my mind: Is this a guy thing? Is this really how they see life in general...Well, I got the jist of what she was saying.
Well, yes but you forgot to put the yoghurt in the fridge.
But I saw there was yoghurt!

Yes the jist. But ah! The details!

And just to be perfectly clear on one other thing -- I don't watch Hollywood films such as Troy or whatever other movie we picked up a while back at Wal-mart that was supposed to have English and didn't in Chinese either. The same as I don't watch IP Man in English but I like to have my English subtitles so I know what the heck is going on and don't have to work my brain to understand everything...movie watching in a foreign language isn't very relaxing. But I will say it was really funny listening to the Chinese dubbing trying to pronounce 'Achilles' since Chinese doesn't use the 'lah' sound in the middle of anything. I think in the first 10 minutes of the movie, 'Achilles' was pronounced differently every time they said it. There was a lot of hesitating before saying the word and an awful lot of mumbling...you could just hear the Chinese cursing the Greeks in the back of their minds...

Happy Thursday!

I was thinking about leaving this for a Wordless Wednesday or even my 100th post but I couldn't -- I love it so much! Can you see me doing this in about a year?!

In case you were unsure of general toilet etiquette and what to do with any hoses you might find attached to the bowl...while I know its tempting, please refrain from washing your hair with it.

I'll be honest: I don't feel fabulous these days.

Poor Jason -- he keeps asking when the happy hormones kick in. Then I cry and tell him not till the second trimester. Then he feels bad. Its a vicious cycle. I read that the kidney bean (this week the baby is the size of a kidney bean from what I can best work out) has the beginning of ears but they're not fully working yet. I hope that's true. I don't want the kidney bean to hear mummy (yikes! What a strange word...) periodically crying because she can't buy smoked mozzarella penne pasta salad from Whole Foods Supermarket or gagging because someone mentioned peanut butter and waffles together (um...excuse me for a moment) or worse...Chinese food. I don't want the kidney bean to hear what a high maintenance mother he/she has somehow been paired with -- the one who now has guests calling to ask if they should take a shower before coming over. I asked Jason if I was really that bad -- he said maybe he'd complained about how often I ask him to take a shower these days to a few people...can't blame him really. But seriously. Our guest called and asked if she should take a shower before coming for dinner last night. She was trying to be nice I know. Is it weird or bad that I appreciated the fact she asked? Or worse...that I told her she had plenty of time to take a shower before coming??? Who is this woman I've become???

So in light of my crappy emotions, spin-cycle stomach, and finely tuned sense of smell (I could rival the drug sniffing dogs at the airports these days), I'm choosing to go back to think of my best case scenario me ie. B.P. (before pregnancy). I'm thinking about a day when the little girl dream of make-up, dress-ups and high heels was realized. The day I pretended to be glamorous even though all went back in the box in the end and the make-up was water-proof and needed something close to paint stripper to remove...

And fake eyelashes. I have pretty darn good eyelashes. They're one of my facial features I'm proud of. They make Chinese girls go green with envy upon finding out they're real BUT I really really wanted to know what it would be like if I had thick, luscious eyelashes. I was a little worried the make-up artist would decide my lashes were already big enough and I wouldn't be able to explain how much I wanted the temporary fakes (its not really something you talk about in your first Chinese language lessons) but happy day! She got them out and glued them on (its not as bad as it sounds since they were only the temporary ones) and I was elated with how they looked! If only, if only...I did try to sleep without moving that night so they'd stay on one extra day but alas, I woke up to one completely gone and the other hanging half off making me look worse than normal upon waking. But at least now I can say I've done it!

We decided to celebrate being in China for a year and our fourth wedding anniversary, we wanted to do something to mark these achievements. Having a shrine sized (meaning at least one metre high) portrait of one's self is extremely popular in China. Often upon walking into someones living room, you're aren't met by a nice piece of art, a Chinese water colour or work of calligraphy but by a larger than life single portrait of oneself dressed in Victorian era garb or as a Greek god. However for the newly weds, the package includes a set of Chinese dress (in red for good luck of course) and so we thought, it would be only fitting to have our photos taken in true authentic Chinese dress. And somehow, I fancied throwing in a 1920's Shanghai gangster look. But the catch was, I didn't want to pay more than $50 USD (which is about the same in Australian now) and I didn't want the huge Shrine Portrait. So after all manner of bartering and trying to explain why we didn't want the huge Shrine Portrait (it completely baffled them), we finally got the deal we wanted (I love it when they throw in six extra portraits just as you're walking out their door to look across the road -- love it!) from the photographer we liked and no Shrine Portrait -- just a regular 8 x 10" size. Actually I think we paid $60 but I was happy with the way they turned out and figured a CD with 16 photos and one 8 x 10" print wasn't bad.

So back to the studio -- what a trooper Jason is! As long as the man has an iPod to play with...but blue socks Babe? The photo people had assured us they'd have clothes to fit him -- I should've gone with my gut instinct and made him bring his own pants. I knew it! So you'll notice that none of the photos show our feet. Which is a bummer -- if only you could see the ridiculous stilettos I'm wearing -- very sexy but not in the slightest bit comfortable for a few hours of having one's photo taken. And then, they brought out the box. Because I still wasn't tall enough. When I look at the photos now, I think gosh, I really am that short. I don't really view myself as being so short now I'm an adult -- I believe its more or less a miss-perception to one's eye. But considering I'm standing on the box in the below photo...maybe I can stand to be corrected...

In the fine words of Legolas spoken to the dwarf Gimli, at the battle of Rohan: "Would you like me to describe it to you? Or shall I get you a box?"