Ice-Scooting

Yesterday we had a wonderful day. A had the day off and I'm on the first week of my five week Chinese New Year break from teaching, so we hooked up with the Bassetts and had loads of fun. Question: What would the Putnams do without the Bassetts? Answer: Let's not go there. As far as our Branch goes, we live geographically closer to the Bassetts than anyone else. We're only a few Beijing-blocks from each other (which are huge) but is has been a huge blessing to us over the last 5 months. Brooke is in our Nursery and we just adore her, and Bobby and Ashleigh are absolutely awesome and we're looking forward to being friends with them for a long, long time.

We took a taxi from the Bassetts house down to Houhai Lake which, come to find out, is an ice skating wonderland! I have never been a huge fan of ice skating - there's something about being cold, sore, and uncomfortable that I usually don't enjoy...call me crazy...However, riding on a chair, with my husband, feet off the ice, pushing ourselves forward with two screwdrivers soldered together was nothing less than AWESOME!

Why are we so surprised that they have their own way of moving across the ice? I don't know because by this time, we should have learned that they have different ways of doing lots of things, but somehow we are still surprised! We loved the ice chairs, even complete with a little steering wheel for Brooke, and the Bassetts ice-bike was great too. Bobby and Ashleigh (and Brooke!) are super adventurous - and if you know me, you know that "adventure" is my middle name. Not. A would start us in a donut and I'd be screaming, "slow down! A, you stop that!" Our poor children, I promise I won't swaddle them in bubble-wrap. :)

We had loads of fun on the ice and loved spending the time with the Bassetts. They've been back home for the last three weeks so we were so happy to have the day with them. We had a blast all-together and equally enjoyed watching all of the other people around us. I'll tell you what, while in China there sure is a lot of prime people watching to be done.

After ice-scooting we split for some lunch and met back up at the theatre to see Sherlock Holmes. It just came out in China on Sunday. We LOVED the movie and there is just something about sitting in a movie theatre that makes us feel like we're at home - the Chinese subtitles don't even throw us. After the movie we walked over to this awesome little shopping street and got some delicious-creamy-custardy-outside crunchy-triangles that the Bassetts knew about. It was a perfect treat and a great ending to our fun day!