Cross-world countdown day 37

 Today some shelves emptied and a few items found new homes. Aiden brought a friend's mom over to look through some give aways... along with a noisy explosion of boys! As they all left with something, it was happy success for all of us😊 

Mom also took her bike to get brakes fixed. It was a slow cautious ride there as her brakes basically were nonexistent!

School work got done for the day plus a little as we use our Christmas present: an indoor rock climbing day at the biggest rock wall gym here. The kids are looking forward to seeing their parents climb!

Mom took a look at doctor and dentist checkups for us all before we go. Could be quite a schedule juggle...

We had some interesting meals as we empty the fridge to defrost it...

And mom did an inventory of all the food items in the kitchen so she can try make meals to use up as much as possible before we leave. She was quite happy to discover that other than sauces and spices the task is not too daunting.

So, empty shelves and a fairly short food inventory are pleasing evidence that maybe we've planned ahead enough this time that the last week's won't be quite so overwhelmingly full of things and tasks...

Cross-World Countdown Day 38

 Mom woke feeling like this to start the day, and with a groan thought, "It's only Tuesday..." Not a brilliant start to the day, but it picked up.

We started school - sort of. Mom and Dad were out most of the day so, while a partial French lesson was squeezed in before they left, Jasmin and Aiden were left to themselves to do the rest of their school day.

We valiantly attempted to empty the fridge of leftovers and other perishables by eating so we can defrost it and hopefully nurse it back to working order until we leave.

Grace and Mom went out for a possibly final date on this side of the ocean, got caught out by a sudden intense rain storm, and so came home late and sopping wet.

Mom got struck by strong nostalgia when a friend offered her a piece of "true" gingerbread from England... the taste was strong remembrance without any accompanying memory of time, place, or happening.

Dad got a few more goodbye meetings arranged for later in the month. So something got done directly related to leaving preparations! Oh, and we have a verbal agreement for a sale on one piece of furniture.

Cross-World Countdown Day 39

 In terms of moving plans, today we hosted our landlord and talked through various arrangements such as 

    When and how we'll paint

    What furniture they'd be interested in buying from us

    The handover process of the sublet of the parking space

Now Mom has a target date to sell off what she can before we paint so we have enough room to live in and paint this place at the same time 😊

So, Mom started working on a google doc catalogue of things to be sold...

Dad also worked on plans for a trip to KL to say goodbye to friends there and return a borrowed game.

In "the rest of life," 

We started the day with a zoom call with far-flung family!

Aiden played away the last day of school break with all his friends; his biggest frustration being it was everyone's last day free so he wanted to be with them all, but they don't all get along with each other, so he was bouncing back and forth!

Grace worked her way through the orientation videos and exercises for her university that is starting next Monday.

Jasmin dove into her work in her online writers' communities and picked fonts for her new website, that is hopefully coming soon.

...and Mom tried to sort out the rest of the week, juggling things like 

    - fixing her bike that lost its braking ability on Sunday on the way home from church
    - defrosting the fridge without losing its current stock of perishables to restore its cooling properties (we know what's broken but, please, just last 39 more days?)
    - a likely all-day meeting for Mom and Dad tomorrow
    - various appointments and music lessons that are now restarting

Interesting life!

Cross-world Countdown in Reverse

 When we left Canada for our life here 5 years ago we did a 40 day countdown. As we draw near our return to Canada, we went back over those posts with amusement and enjoyment - and decided to do it again. We were somewhat startled to realize that our 40 day countdown actually begins today!  40 days (or there abouts since we don't have the date totally set) until we leave Penang, and a solid count of 51 days until we arrive in Canada ("On the way back," we will be spending some time in Bangkok to say goodbye to friends there, and then a week in Chiang Mai for a SAFE staff conference.).

As there is much in the whys of our return that we don't know yet, Grace's latest song release is now our theme song for the year.

To kick off the 40 day countdown, a reverse "we'll miss" and we're looking forward to" set of lists:

Things we'll miss about Penang

Church breakfast especially teh

Flagging in church

Jungle covered hill views

Watching clouds creep over the hills

Abundant and varied flora and fauna

Fogging - less mosquitoes, and a mandated supper out 

Cheap, abundant, delicious street food

Chinese church

Multilingual living

Abundant fresh fruit and vegetables

Impromptu evening beach walks

Night market dates

Simplicity of only slight variations of seasons

Playing free with friends all over the apartment complex

So many holidays celebrated with days off school so my friends are available

Youth Camps

Rain that doesn't make you too cold

Things we're looking forward to

Cheerios

Family reunions 

Snow and cold weather

Quieter streets

Sidewalks that are meant for walking on (clear of holes, poles, cars, trees)

A house instead of small apartment

A dog - I hope!

Four distinct seasons

Old friends

Libraries

Real milk

Yea Yea's food

Hot water in the taps