Hot children

They both melted a bit in the 34 oC, 75 % humidity weather in Ho Chi Minh City.

We are tourists!

William often requests to wear the same clothes as either mummy or daddy. So, we gave in and bought a matching outfit at the market. We also had a fun ride on a "cyclo" during which Sophie clapped her hands alot in happiness. We visited the Jade Temple which had lots of turtles and incense.




William has been wonderful at helping look after Sophie, as Andrew and I take turns to meet scientists and medics at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit here. I had a great meeting with them today - they were most helpful and full of info on the work they do as well as what it is like to bring up kids in HCMC. I'm so glad that we made this stop over here - I feel that we are no longer just a naive and idealistic couple dreaming of taking their young family to live in a tropical location. We have a much better idea of what the reality of life here would be like, and I still think we are pretty keen!



PS William also has a fever now - 39oC this evening. I had better go to bed now, as though we all slept very well the first night, I've been awake since 2.30am this morning, so feeling very jet lagged.

Update from Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

We all survived the flights without too much stress, even though Sophie had a fever. At least being second time parents we were all prepared for such an event and had everything with us that we needed to help her. We found a nice place for dinner last night - kid friendly, both local and more Western food (I had goat, but they also had deer and boar on the menu) which they barbequed on a hot plate in the middle of the table. You can imagine which young man liked that! We also found a great park nearby with sand and lots of good things to play on. Here, the kids generated more attention - both adults and kids came up to them to stroke their cheeks, say hello, stare, and pick up William (eg. to help us negotiate some steps). When I took S to the nearby market, at least 50 people pinched her checks as she slept in the pram, "how cute, how many month?". It must be pretty foreign to W and S, who are coping fine with it so far - they seem to take it in their stride, while looking pretty stunned by the heat anyway. I should add that Andrew's beard is also generating a lot of attention, which he seems to be coping with well!

Spring in the back the garden

In the garden of our new house this Spring, we are discovering all the bulbs that lay hidden underground during the Winter. Andrew took this lovely photo of some crocuses at the base of the apple tree. There are more throughout the lawn, and they look very pretty.

March update

It was sunny here yesterday so people were wearing shorts and flip flops about on the streets. I even wore a t-shirt. That’s what happens when it is a balmy 10oC in Oxford.

Andrew is off work this week, and so doing a very good job at looking after the kids and knowing what is going on with them, as he does the pick up and drop off to nursery. He took Sophie to the GP on Mon as she keeps getting fevers (possible ear or chest infection) with the results that she has started her third lots of antibiotics for the month. She seems to be doing ok though. She's had a fever a few evenings this week, but not tonight.....yet. Andrew even cooked their dinner tonight, and I went to Magdalen College for evensong, to hear the boys singing Allegri's Miserere mei, Deus - lucky me!

I'm enjoying my new job as a research assistant very much. I've been doing new techniques, and got to play with hepatitis C virus too. It may all be in my mind, but I feel a lot more relaxed and as if the pressure is off me a bit. Placebo affect or no, it is a good thing.


Another of Williams' entertaining 3.5 year old sentences:
I ate some crust, look how curly my hair is!

I wanted to record some of William’s talking progress. In December he seemed to have discovered the suffix –ment. He was using it is all sorts of contexts as he works out what it is really for:
This ramp is very slippy, it has lots of slipment.
What is this blockment?


He has also told us some of his dreams. Things like: “I dreamed of ice cream”. Or, he might wake up and come to us in our bedroom saying “something is biting me”, and when we ask what, he replied “dinosaurs”, which we find very cute. One night as he was sleeping in a sleeping bag, he woke up saying “there is something snappy in my bed”. It is hard to turn him away, so his originally rather random appearances in our room in the middle of the night have somehow developed into a regular event. He comes into our bed almost every night now, arriving between 2-5am. Hmmmm, might need to do something about this at some stage.

Breaking news - Sophie took her first steps!

This evening, in front of an audience of 9 people, Sophie took a couple of steps. She was so pleased that she did it a couple of times. Now we'll all need to watch out!

(Sorry about slightly ironic picture of Sophie crawling! We haven't captured footage of her walking yet.)

Cornish holiday

We’re back from a lovely family holiday in Cornwall.


On the way down there, we visited Andrew’s Uncle Barry, Aunty Linda and cousin Simon, who not only fed us, but also got out lots of train track from the loft. William set to making a train track immediately and was happily occupied while the adults caught up. It was great to see them, and enjoy their new conservatory – thanks for dinner!


We stayed in a cottage in Lostwithiel, and as the weather was a little rainy (unsurprising, given the season) we had time for lots of fun indoor activities as well as outdoor adventures. William and Andrew made pizza dough, for a potato pizza. We all enjoyed the Eden Project – especially Tilly, the T-rex walking around in the rainforest, and the granite seed. William shaped some pizza dough balls which were cooked in a wood-fired oven. They had an ice rink there too, where William bulldozed other kids snow castles (while Sophie slept).





Sophie is loving crawling, as well as standing up and now comfortably lets go and stands unaided for 5 second periods, both hands held high in the air with a ‘look at me’ attitude.

We visited the beach at Polkerris (nice pub on the beach) and the contrast of Sophie’s first trip to the beach wearing a full waterproof suit and thick socks, with her cousin Patrick’s first visit in Melbourne just reflects the different seasons between the hemispheres. She did enjoy eating sand though, so a normal Australian kids response there.


Many a Cornish playground was explored, many a puddle splashed through and we had the most relaxing family holiday yet. May be we’re getting better at this parent thing? Even the car breaking down on the motorway 3 hours from Oxford didn’t end up being a hassle as we all got towed back home. With the kids and Andrew falling asleep in the tow truck, I managed to get a couple of hours reading my book in peace, and so it felt just like a real holiday!