Levi is now officially 3 years old ! Happy Birthday little man

crept down to the 24 hour front desk this morning at 5 am to find the desk clerk swaddled in mitts and sweaters lying asleep on a futon sofa.  There are no kettles in the rooms and one needs to ask the desk person to boil some water. After several paper shuffling noises and tapping my Mink mug on the counter he awoke and began the water boiling process.  I have been searching the town for a Starbucks (sorry Marc) but cant find one. There is Pizza Hut, KFC, and McDonalds but no coffee place. I have not drunk coffee since Victoria BC, and don't really miss it, but it would be a treat to have a cuppa.  These people do not use cream and it does not appear available even in the grocery stores.  Milk comes in a tetra pack only.  Jeff and I were discussing the foods and I told him that one day I decided to have toast. There was this bright yellow mass of stuff so I spread some on the toast, thinking it might be butter. Don't ever eat the yellow stuff. It does not break down, I have no idea what it is, but it just sits on top of whatever you put it on and feels like silly putty in your mouth -- no more like that slimy stuff that kids toss and it sticks on the ceilings and walls of your house,.Maybe this is the local version of "don't eat yellow snow"
Jeff has lived in Asian climates before so his advise for work days is to take a small piece of luggage. Thank God Jenn convinced me to take a small carry on.  He said to take at least one change of clothing, and any overnight things I would need, plus my computer, dongle, and water.  So, now I have emptied that piece of luggage in this messy room and will fill it with the items he has suggested,  I also have imodium, which he needs so maybe I can negotiation using his washing machine in our new homes until I can afford to buy my own.  He needs imodium now, so I think I have the ACE for that one.  He is also intent on getting his internet installed immediately, which I think might be an expense I would rather hold off on for a month.  They want a huge deposit for this, so perhaps making dinner for him will give me the internet access code for me to use for a while too.  I think I am becoming more of a local than I realized. Yesterday at breakfast some woman approached us asking if wanted to buy a lottery ticket from her.  When we declined, she then proceeded to offer all sorts of things and said she would meet us again. And she did. She found us at dinner last night.We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and what a good idea. Much easier on the digestive system. A huge mound of baby bok choy and some kind of hot ginger soup.Now off to meet the Ministry person.  All those years of political involvement are finally paying off. I can schmooze with the best of them, and that is exactly what is required for this meeting.  Wish me luck.  I took a big step today -- I changed my watch to local time. It was a hard decision to make but I could never figure out whether the time I saw on my watch was morning or night in Canada and made a couple of faux pas calling people in the middle of the night, So I decided I might as well know the time where I am.  My blog posts are probably dated a day or too off because I have kept the computer at Canada time also. But that is not even correct either. arghhhh