Chinatown and some New Year Festivities...

Today Beth and I had a low key day... pottered around the house in the morning and did some grocery shopping at lunch and then back home again.

In the afternoon, Sharon, Emily, Beth and I drove into Chinatown early (4:30pm - to avoid the mad, crazy peak hour Brisbane traffic). We actually avoided all the bad traffic and spent a nice hour looking around the streets a bit before taking a break at Gloria Jeans so I could feed Beth a bit of dinner (Emily wanted to help, so she was feeding Beth by herself at some points... so cute seeing a toddler feed a baby!) I ordered a babycino for Beth, which she ate the froth off and wasn't interested in the rest... and after about 10 minutes, Beth got sick of sitting in the stroller, so I let her out and she walked around along the ottoman seat things and then her and Em were having a blast bouncing up and down on the lounge seat... hilarious stuff... The boys walked from work to Chinatown (about a 15 minute walk for them) and met up with them and we watched some of the Chinatown festivites - some school children singing Chinese songs, the lion dance and some kung fu demonstration. Beth enjoyed the lion dance - wasn't scared by the lions or the loud drumming... Then we went into restaurant (right next to the where the entertainment was happening) and had some dinner... Collin had taken on the ordering responsibility and ordered HEAPS of food... for 8 people he ordered 16 dishes! Wowsers! It was good... had some nice spicy noodles and I love their roti and curry. We left at about 7:30pm because we thought Beth was tired... but she wasn't so much tired as *bored* at being at the restaurant... she laughed and talked all the way home in the car. We had to give her a bath and give her some milk before bed... so she didn't get put into her cot until 8:30pm and she pretty much crashed, since she'd been awake since 4:15pm (when I had to wake her... poor thing).

The parking costs here are insane... we were there from 4:45pm - 7:20pm and it cost us $14! So if I ever go to the Chinatown, I'm catching the train in... it would be so much cheaper!