What We Did This Week

in photos…

Busy June

June is almost over. It was a busy month starting off with Luke’s Mum visiting. After she left we had  to say goodbye to our dear friends who moved back to the U.S.

It was very sad to see them go but we know we will visit them in their new location.

They kindly gave us their baby bathtub for Jude to have.

He loves it, making bath time a lot of  fun.

Apart from visits, farewells, and baths, we’ve been doing some walking practice;

adventures to the grocery store;

the hair salon;

and play dates with other babies and mommies.

(see the ‘Hey Jude’ onesie the other baby has on? so cute)

This is our weekly group of babies and mom’s that we get together with.

We were all in the same birth class and have babies around about the same age. It’s hard to handle the cuteness!

June almost over but July is looking just as busy!

A Week of $299 Bargains

On Saturday Luke was walking around our neighborhood in search of a new place to have his hair cut. He walked past one place that was handing out coupons for a hair cut and wash for $299 NT (about $12 NZD/ $10 USD). So he decided to try it out.

Here’s Luke before:

Here’s Luke after:

His hair turned out great! We both agreed it was the best cut he has had in Taiwan. The hairdresser gave him a few extra vouchers on his way out. This week I was booked to go and have a hair cut at a favorite expat salon. It’s a very nice salon but also very expensive. A women’s haircut there would be around $2000 NT (or $80 NZD). I thought about it awhile and then decided to cancel my appointment and try out the $12 place. My hair grows fast so I thought even if it turned out bad it wouldn’t matter too much as it will be longer again in no time. And so I went.

Here’s Mel before:

Here’s Mel after:

I thought the hairdresser did a pretty good job. It was certainly better than my last (and very expensive) Taiwan hair cut experience. The biggest problem was language. She didn’t speak a drop of English and I don’t yet know how to say things like, ‘layers’, and ‘bangs’. So I ended u having to pick out a haircut from her catalogue of  Taiwanese hair styles. I would have liked a few more layers but for $12 I thought it was pretty solid. Plus they gave me the most amazing shampoo/head massage. (Taiwanese Salons are really into giving really long and luxurious head massages).

My other $299 steal of the week was a pair of ‘made in Taiwan’ shoes. I’m a loyal Croc wearer – mainly because have been soft for me to wear with my bad knee and because they can get wet with no problem. But the other day I saw this on my friend’s Facebook page and had a ‘oh my god am I really a Croc-wearer?’ moment.

Source

So I decided it was time to swap out the Crocs for a new pair of shoes. The only criteria was they had to be super comfy as I am still recovering from my knee surgery. So I popped into a shoe store that was selling shoes priced from $150 NTD ($6 NZD) to $299 NTD. The ‘higher-end’ made in Taiwan shoes were actually made out of real leather and had a really cushioned insole. So I tried a pair on and my feet were floating on clouds. So I bought a pair after agonizing awhile over which color and style to get.

It’s been a bargain kind of week but today were are going to go to Costco and will blow all of what we saved on these deals plus some!