Craig Goes Back to Baishawan Again

Craig behaved so well when he went to Baishawan on Dad's scooter a few weeks ago that Dad asked if he wanted to do it again. Craig was firmly in favour. They left home even earlier this time, 7:30am!! That may have been too early for Craig because he couldn't finish his breakfast this time. They had been riding for about 45 minutes by that stage but three tiny pancakes was too much.

But he was very clearly happy to be hanging out with Dad ..... and going to the beach.

To break up the long ride they stopped once again to buy another drink. Craig really likes Yakult.

When they arrived at the beach the sun was blazing hot and the reflection off the sand seemed to have an unwanted effect on Dad's camera.

The same problem seemed to affect the phone when a video was taken as well.


Craig was very busy all morning--first with digging a hole at the water's edge and then with building a wall. Then, Dad had to dig a tunnel underneath the wall to allow seawater to come in. Unfortunately, the tide went out too quickly spoiling the plan. The good thing was Craig was very happy about getting water in his bucket and pouring into the tunnel.

He had heaps of fun carrying water up the beach.

All that exercise made Craig hungry. He wasn't very patient when waiting for lunch.

The view of the beach from where they were sitting was nice. It was also good to be out of the sun for a while.

During the middle of the day they retired to the nearby B&B. Craig enjoyed the bath and Dad really appreciated the air-conditioned comfort. Craig stayed in the bath for an hour and a half. ;)

They were back on the beach at about 3:30. It was perfect weather for messing about in the shallows.

This trip was quite different to the last one in that Craig wore his flotation vest at the beach. Perhaps because of his misadventures last time, this time he was quite cautious about going into the water. He only headed out into the waves (yes those tiny one you can see in the background) when holding hands with his Dad. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Graham Helps Mum Some More

Graham has become a very busy little man. He spends a lot of his time at home playing with Craig.


But, sometimes he likes to help his Mum when she is working at home.

He's very hardworking sometimes.

Of course, most of Graham's "work" involves taking things out of drawers and throwing them on the floor. His Mum would probably prefer that Graham's Dad stop the boy from working so much but Dad is mostly busy taking photos. It's tough being a mum, huh?

Graham's Evil Dad Again

Poor Graham has a terrible father. One fine sunny Wednesday morning, Dad was hanging out clothes on the back balcony and Graham was inside the apartment looking out. The bad part of this arrangement was the dirty gauze on the door. Graham leaned against it hard enough to rub his mouth and chest against the gauze and get himself very dirty. Then, after finishing hanging out the washing, his evil father took a photo of Graham's face before cleaning him up.

Beach Weekend

Last weekend, Dad had a full weekend off. So, a plan was hatched to go to the beach. As soon as he finished work, he went to get a rental car and everyone piled aboard. It was about 10:00pm when they left home and they didn't arrive at the bed-&-breakfast place until 11:30ish.

Both Craig and Graham had a nap in the car so that meant they were both temporarily full of beans when they got upstairs to the room. Graham decided to help unpack.

Unpacking Graham-style means throwing clothes out of the bag onto the floor. He was very busy for quite a while.

Surprisingly, Craig was content to just put on his pajamas and lie on his bed!

Staying up late meant a late start the next morning. The sun was blazing hot and the sand at the top of the beach was scalding hot. But, that didn't matter to the boys. Playing in the sand at the water's edge was heaps of fun. In the background is the tent that Uncle Dean and Aunty Suprana gave Craig a few years back. It's great for beach trips. :)

Graham was a bit concerned about Dad's engineering skills because the tiny sand wall between Graham and the waves didn't stop him getting splashed in the face once or twice.

You can see how the center of the wall had been washed away. No wonder he was worried.

Graham's Mum saved the boy by taking him back to the shade in the tent.

After a bath the two boys played back in the room while the midday sun blazed away.

Unfortunately, Dad forgot to take the camera to the beach in the afternoon. For the first time since he can remember Baishawan had proper waves!! The only other picture that was taken was of Craig when he had almost finished his dessert after dinner. There's nothing like a waffle to put a smile on his face.

Rainy Saturday & Camera Skills Failure

It didn't rain all day but there was gentle rain off and on. For two little boys this could have meant a very long, boring day at home. But, Mum and Dad decided that a ride on the MRT would be something to relieve the boredom for the tiny people. They decided to get off and see if a visit to a park would be possible. It wasn't so they retired to a coffee shop with a covered outdoor seating area.

Graham was very happy when being tickled.

He liked the little buzzer thing that they give you at the counter to let you know when your order is ready.

Craig was also happy to be out of the house but didn't show it much whenever a camera was pointed at him.

Back at home, a very blurry photo was taken that could have been a treasure. The two brothers were going for a ride together for the very first time.

Graham had a little bit of trouble with direction, sometimes going backwards more than forwards.

A slightly better photo was taken with both Craig and Graham looking at the camera but it isn't it a shame their Dad's hand wasn't a bit steadier on the first one.

Craig's Money Box

The weeks have been flying past at an amazing speed recently. Last weekend, while Mum went to the library, Craig, Graham and Dad hung out in a park. Craig had heaps of fun climbing on the jungle gym and, every now and then, would run up to Graham and tickle him before running away to play again.

At home, Mum's electric keyboard has provided plenty of fun, if not much real music.

But, the main development recently has been Craig's first money box(es). Now, most evenings when Dad comes home from work he hands over some of his change to Craig, and Craig very quickly deposits it in the money boxes. Craig thinks this is great fun. The next step will be allowing to spend some of it or save it.

Craig's First World Cup Qualifier

On the Sunday night immediately after their return from the weekend away, Craig went to see the 2014 World Cup qualifier between Taiwan and Malaysia. They arrived well into the second half and the score was already 2-2. Craig thought it was "too noisy" and said so several times.

Craig didn't watch the football at all. He spent most of his time curled up into a ball on his seat with his hands held firmly over his ears.

It was very apparent to Craig's Dad that the people sitting nearby had no idea about how world cup qualification works. Taiwan had already lost to Malaysia 2-1 in Kuala Lumpur a few days earlier. So, although Taiwan won the game on Sunday night 3-2, it was Taiwan that was knocked out of the world cup.

Many people in the crowd around us had no clue. The ground announcer only said that Taiwan had won tonight's game. Craig's Dad even heard one North American accented voice behind him explain to a large group of people that if Taiwan won by one goal there would be penalties to decide who went through to the next round of qualification. It was all a bit silly.

However, it was a massive crowd by Taiwan football standards, by far the biggest Craig's Dad had ever seen in all his 19 years in Taiwan. Just a shame their team didn't get one more goal.

Weekend Away

It was time for Craig and Graham's Mum to have her once a year reunion with her university classmates. This year's destination was a bed and breakfast place up in the hills of Taichung in a little town called Shinshe. After arriving at the B&B there was a short interlude of hanging around in the air-conditioned room but the boys had too much energy to stay still for long.

Craig and Dad went out to the garden where they kicked a ball and had a look at some butterflies that were flying around.

While they were playing Craig almost stepped on a tiny little frog. Luckily, the little fella hopped away into the bushes.

Taking photos of a group of flying butterflies is pretty much impossible, isn't it?

Craig soon became bored with playing with Dad but luckily someone in the traveling party had brought some bubble-making equipment.

A group of adults had found a place to sit, drink tea and chat while the large number of children began playing amongst themselves. However, Graham was too small to join in. Dad offered to take him back to the room so that Mum could talk to the other adults for a while. Graham had heaps of fun with his Dad's keys.

He really seemed to like the taste of the Swiss army knife.

But he stayed awake much longer than expected and then fell asleep when they were driving off to dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant that specialised in mushrooms. With Graham asleep, Mum could eat in peace, that's probably why she was smiling, despite the fact that dinner was largely mushroom-based.

After dinner, everyone drove back to the B&B where Craig had a snack before some pottery lessons for the kids were the next bit of entertainment.

Craig had some fun with the clay.



But, after a short while Craig did his best to not join in anymore and started being a nuisance. That's his way of saying, "I'm bored and don't want to do this."
Meanwhile, outside Graham finally had the dinner he had missed when everyone else was eating mushrooms.

At breakfast the next morning Mum was the only one who was fit, happy and healthy. The sun had risen very early waking up Craig and Graham much earlier than usual. Dad had a splitting headache. So, Super Mum had to hug Craig to make him feel better while feeding Graham with one spare hand. Truly, a Super Mum!

After breakfast most of the kids took turns feeding a goat that had shown up in the front yard of the B&B.

Craig is really not brave when it comes to dealing with animals and he needed plenty of help from Mum with the feeding.

After packing up, everyone then traveled to a strange tourist trap that calls itself a summer resort. Craig refused to pose for a picture.

Being part of a group photo was just as uninteresting for him.

It was very hot walking around so the little family found a place to sit beside the little lake where the breeze was blowing.

Graham was bored and needed a game but there weren't any toys at hand.

A game with Dad's cap put a smile on his face.

Unfortunately, there are no more photos from the rest of the day because Craig's Dad's phone suffered a major malfunction and refused to work until it was taken home. But, apart from a long drive home down a very full freeway, there wasn't much to see.