Some other unfortunate events

Rainy, cold days --one after the other have made life depressing

I did say some unfortunate events last time. The other several are the weather, the hospital situation, my blood pressure and a friend in jail (which I will talk about next time).

I spoke a bit too soon when I said the weather was awesome. It was, but then it changed to being horrible. I guess compared to freezing Chicago right now, temperatures in the low 50's shouldn't be so bad. However, it is also raining everyday and as we are in the south so there is no heat in any building including our own. This was a problem that I thought was easily fixable. I had David go buy several space heaters thinking that would do the trick. The problem is that only one large heating unit and a small heating unit can run together at any given time. Otherwise we blow a fuse. Figures. This is China and if things work out too well it just wouldn't be China. So we are pretty cold here. Due to the concrete nature of the building we live in, it is actually colder inside than it is outside. I need to get an inside thermostat and then I can say with certainty what the temperature is inside. We wear our coats in the house most days though. I did buy a dryer (a very rare thing here) so that helps a ton. Putting damp clothes on in the cold only adds insult to injury. Our helper who does most of the laundry pretty much refuses to use the dryer because it uses too much electricity (lan fei dian she says, literally wastes electricity). So I usually put the clothes in the dryer after they have been hanging on the cold and rainy balcony for a day or two.

The weather is a current national problem. The whole country has been experiencing bad weather and it has led to national chaos. Right now is the start of the biggest holiday in China -- the Lunar New Year. The holiday when everyone goes home for a few weeks. This national holiday causes huge problems every year. This year there has been cold weather and freezing rain all over the country. So for days, the trains have not been running at all and thousands (as in numbers like 80,000 in Guangzhou) have been stranded at the train stations waiting for a train that has been canceled. Getting another ticket is unlikely since they are sold out through the holiday. The buses aren't going either and of the ones that have tried, several have slid off the icy roads causing both injuries and fatalities.

So other things are that my blood pressure is up a little and we still have no spot in a hospital in Hong Kong. The crazy thing about Hong Kong and having babies is that you need to book a room in a hospital as much as 9 months in advance (as soon as you find out). As of right now, most hospitals are booked up for the next 9 months. I imagine this can do no more than help the hospital get a good guesstimate since the precise date of labor and delivery can not be accurately predicted (the stats are that 80% of babies are born between 38 and 42 weeks -- so anywhere in the range of two weeks before or after the due date which to me would seem like a very broad base on which to make scheduled "bookings"). The midwife at my Dr.'s office says that they will get me in when the time comes and not to worry too much. It still is a bit nerve wracking not knowing what will happen in the event of early labor or an emergency. So we have been checking out hospitals in Guangzhou as a possible back up to Hong Kong. So far two are quite nice -- Clifford Hospital and the VIP Birthing Center. We really need to figure this out soon since my blood pressure is in the upper 130's over the upper 80's and sometimes reads above 140/90. So we might need to decide within the next week or two even though I am not due until the end of the month.