March 13th, 2017 | 2 Years

8:00 a.m. Good morning Alexander and happy birthday. Alexander is two years old today and growing fast. Yesterday we bought several varieties of cookies and snacks and packaged them for his birthday party today in daycare. In Taiwan it is usually custom for the birthday to be celebrated with classmates by giving out snacks and drinks to them. Some a cake or perhaps pearl milk tea. So with Alexander in one hand, the other clutching a shopping bag full of goodies we took Alex to daycare.

11:30 a.m. Off to work. Nice day for a ride down the highway. The sun is warm and the sky bright blue, although the wind is quite breezy. Reminds me of the beginning of summer at the beach in Australia. Yesterday I spoke with mum and dad on Skype and they said Oz is experiencing a heat wave this week with no signs of rain. There are two things I do not miss about living in Oz. The heat and those darn flies. I does get hot in Taiwan, but not as extreme. And in 10 years I have only ever come across no more than 5 or 6 flies. It’s pretty rare. And around an expat Australian those few flies didn’t live long I can assure you that!

Teaching about Birthdays on Alexanders birthday. What a surprise.

2:00 p.m. Grade 2. I was gobsmacked today when I opened the lesson book. It was all about Birthdays! And for a real zinger it was also about the number 13! What are the odds of that happening on Alexander ‘s birthday on the 13th of March? I gave out some of the extra cookie packs Chia had made to the students, who had all met Alex last year. They were very happy about that.

Grade 2 students with cookies for Alexanders birthday.

4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Grade 4 class.

6:00 p.m. Set off back to Kaohsiung.

7:45 p.m. Arrived home and gave Alex a little party. He had a small cake and some gifts to open. 

8:45 p.m. Put Alexander to bed. Going to watch some TV and then do some more experiments with robotics.