Hard day shopping in HK

We went shopping over the New Year weekend for traditional holiday decorations (lanterns etc) and flowers (cherry blossom; yellow gourd-type things; pussy willow etc). Hong Kong was virtually empty -- shopping is a national past time, but it's not lucky to buy new things immediately before or during the holiday period.

2.5 years on, I still find the Hong Kong signage; street scenes and markets fascinating - and very picturesque.

After shopping, we treated ourselves to a fish & chip lunch at 'The Chippy' - a tiny fish and chip shop incongruously placed in the middle of a Cantonese market, but inside it's an immediate transportation to a London cafe complete with the UK Sunday papers; pickled eggs; Capital Radio streamed via the web live etc etc. And deep-fried Mars bars. London prices too :(

M

Get on your bikes and ride!

Well I'm stunned!

Billy has had his own push bike for 8 months now.

Archie got a bike for Xmas.

Each of them had hardly looked at their bikes until about 6 days ago. And certainly neither of them could ride a bike sans stabilsers.

Then SUDDENLY, they got bitten by the bike bug last weekend. I'm stunned - it took each of them c. 2 days over the weekend to learn, and now they're buzzing round as though they've been cycling for years. Weird how it all clicks into place all of a sudden. I managed to capture Billy's first ride on his own -- and his smug face afterwards too!

So now we have to find a large expanse of flatness somewhere in HK for them to practice. And (stupid me) I promised them all sorts of $$ if they managed to ride a bike by 31st Jan.

I put a lot of this rapid learning down to an amazing learner bike that one of the kids in the block has. Called 'Puky' these training bikes don't have stabilisers or pedals -- kids self-propel them -- teaches balance and steering. (That's the bike Archie is on). Quite interesting to see how our children came on so quickly.

M

Kung Hei Fat Choi - happy lunar/chinese new year to you

We're knee deep in Chinese or Lunar New Year celebrations here.

This new year is the year of the Ox (牛) - which seems very apt given the economic climate:

The Ox is thought to be the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Security is their main preoccupation in life, and they are prepared to toil long and hard in order to provide a warm, comfortable and stable nest for themselves and their families.

The Ox, according to tradition, is not extravagant, and a modern interpretation of this is that the thought of living off credit cards or being in debt makes them nervous. The possibility of taking a serious risk could cause the Ox sleepless nights.

Ox people are truthful and sincere, and the idea of wheeling and dealing in a competitive world is distasteful to them. They are rarely driven by the prospect of financial gain.

Hmm.

Here's the latest (the 3rd Chinese New Year we've celebrated in Hong Kong!) pictures of the boys dressed in traditional Chinese New Year garb .. they are encouraged to do this so that when they visit our places of work (tomorrow), all younger and unmarried people are obliged to give them 'Lai See' (red packets of money), providing that is the boys wish folks 'Kung Hei Fat Choi' whilst simultaneously clasping their hands and shaking them in front of their chests (as they're doing in the photographs).

Judging by the look I'm getting from Billy in these shots, I think this might well be the last year we see him dressed in such a way.

And some interesting New Year customs taken from wiki:

Good luck

* Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
* Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to 'scare away' ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
* Sweets are eaten to ensure the consumer a "sweet" year.
* It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year. (however, as explained below, cleaning the house on or after New Year's Day is frowned upon)
* Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Chinese people will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
* Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
* The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.
* Changing different things in the house such as blankets, clothes, mattress covers etc. is also a well respected tradition in terms of cleaning the house in preparation for the new year.

Bad luck

* Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The character for "shoe" (鞋) is a homophone for the character 諧/谐, which means "rough" in Cantonese; in Mandarin it is also a homophone for the character for "evil" (邪).
* Getting a hair-cut in the first lunar month puts a curse on maternal uncles. Therefore, people get a hair-cut before the New Year's Eve.
* Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one's own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition)
* Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
* Saying words like "finished" and "gone" is inauspicious on the New Year, so sometimes people would avoid these words by saying "I have completed eating my meal" rather than say "I have finished my meal."
* Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious.
* Buying (or reading) books is bad luck because the character for "book" (書/书) is a homonym to the character for "lose" (輸/输).
* Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional Chinese funeral colour.
* Foul language is inappropriate during the Chinese New Year.
* Offering anything in fours, as the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like "death" (死), pronounced sĭ, in Chinese. Pronunciations given here are for Mandarin, but the two words are also near-homophones in Cantonese.
* One should never buy a clock for someone or for oneself because a clock in Chinese tradition means one's life is limited or "the end," which is also forbidden.
* Avoid medicine and medicine related activities (at least on the first day) as it will give a bad fortune on one's health and lessen the luck one can obtain from New Years.

M

Bintan, Indonesia -- New Year

For (Western) New Year, we made a return visit to the Club Med resort in Bintan. It's been recently refurbished and it looks much smarter compared to our first visit a couple of years ago.

Club Meds are a bit like CentreParcs on Acid. Food, drink, kid's care and entertainment etc are all laid on as part of the price. Being a French company, the food and drink is actually rather excellent (despite being buffet-served). New Year's eve, we were treated to as-much-as-you-can-eat superb fruits de mer (oysters; lobster; langoustine etc) and cocktails ('blue martinis' +hic+).

Entertainment is laid on by the staff who are mainly ex-actors/dancers/singers. I think they come to Club Med to fill in between jobs and like it so much never leave! Again, they're pretty good and some are extremely talented! Buckets of team-spirit. Loads of free sports stuff too (I took the Hobie cat out for a couple of hours sailing).

On the downside, we think the boys have had their fill of kids' clubs - and even of Club Med's circus school. They were reticent to join in. So, this year we're going to have to re-think what type of family holidays we have. Some of our friends take their (same aged) kids off trekking, or helping out with charity projects in Burma or visiting museums etc in Vietnam. Don't think our boys are quite up to this yet!

M

Singapore: Late December

En route to our Bintan vacation in between Xmas and New Year, we spent a couple of days in Singapore. One of my friends/work colleagues lent us her apartment - the swimming pools there were the size of a small lake!

The boys had fun being dragged round the City-State with us.

We'd been looking forward to spending the first evening at Singapore Zoo's famous Night Safari - unfortunately, the rest of Singapore was there too! Despite having pre-booked the tickets, we queued to get in for about 2 hours - it was December 29th (evening) and the heat/humidity were unbearable. The tour was quite rubbish actually - loads of mangey looking bored animals sadly trying to get some sleep (and failing because every 30 seconds a tram load of Asian would pass by). Waste of time, energy and money in my opinion!

Next day, we took them to Raffles Hotel, where Joss treated them to the "most expensive bloody round of soft drinks I've ever bought!". Two ginger beers, one coke and a tomato juice - not much change from £25! Still, it was an experience. (Glad I was not paying!). Then lunch in a sausage bar/micro brewery which I seem to end up in every time I go to Sing. Then a tour of the Singapore canals on a riverboat. That night, we treated the boys to 'Black Pepper Crab' at Singapore's famous East Coast Seafood centre. "Alaskan crabs the size of your head!". YUM.

The following day, we took it easy and leisurely walked round Singapore (boys found this boring of course). That night, we ate at a famous Indian restaurant ('The Banana Leaf Apolo') where, as the name suggests, the food is eaten from a banana leaf 'plate' using your hands - both of which the kids found fascinating.

M

Sporty boys? They try!

Coming from an active family, and being particularly talented in the area, Joss is exceptionally keen for the boys to be sporty!

Sadly, they have my sporty genes I fear.

Having said that, they do try (sometimes) - and every now and then show a bit of promise. Billy, for example, is now a brown belt in Kung Fu (two belts away from black) - and packs a mean punch. Above is a picture of a Kung Fu exhibition he recently participated in (the Kung Fu masters were amazing -- punching/breaking 3"+ thick blocks of wood etc). And he seems to be good at middle distance running (he's built like an Ethiopian so we should not be surprised). And Archie excels at breaking things (not records however - just things).

Seriously, the sporting/outdoor life here really suits them - every week, they have lessons in rugby; football; tennis (Archie); Kung Fu (Billy) and swimming (they're both good swimmers now -- Billy surprised us by being good @ the Butterfly stroke).

M

Christmas in Hong Kong - preparations

The weeks leading up to Christmas in Hong Kong are always, I think, a bit lame compared to UK.

In London, December is virtually a write-off with parties and long boozy lunches. LIfe in Hong Kong, however, is pretty much 'business as usual'. There are Christmas lights (boy, are there ever Christmas lights!!) and some attempts to submit to Xmas - but it's not the same. Incidentally, I spent most of December in Singapore -- the lights and street decorations there make Hong Kong look like it's not really trying (which is saying something).

We did some fun things in the lead-up of course.

Such as taking the boys to see a live orchestra/singer accompanying The Snowman (Archie of course spent a great deal of the show trying to get on stage etc). And a memorably drunken (and slightly out-of-hand) Friday evening with friends in one of our favourite restaurants (The Press Room - boasts a branch of the Neal's Yard cheesery (hmmmmm Stinking Bishop yummmmmm).

Mum sent us out a few packets of foil-paperchains ... which amused the kids for about 20 mins each ... but nostalgia-ed me back to 1972.

And, as usual, we got right royally ripped off buying a real Christmas tree imported to HK from God-knows-where on the planet. I won't tell you how much our 6ft tree cost -- it'll make you wince. But it looked and smelt great. When we lived in Bavaria back in the early seventies, my parents bought a candle-driven tiered advent carousel. I imported one from Germany this year -- the boys thought it was magical ... as I did with my parent's one when I was about their age. I hope they have similar fond, warm memories of our carousel. Over the years, Joss has been investing in/accruing a hand-made nativity scene which now looks very special too.

As we had a full-on Christmas Day, coupled with the fact that we flew Sofia (our indispensable live-in helper/angel) back to The Philippines so that she could spend Xmas/NY with her family, we could not attend Midnight Mass or the Christmas Day Morning service. So, this time we went to the family Christmas service at St Stephen's chapel in Stanley. It was a bit random and kid-noisy with the usual interjections and interruptions from Archie: e.g. "Why do we celebrate Jesus?" Archie answer: "Coz he was born on Christmas day DOH". etc etc

St Stephen's is interestng -- and the associated War Grave is very moving:

St. Stephen's Chapel was built in the grounds of St. Stephen's College and consecrated in 1950. It was built on the highest point as a memorial to all those who suffered and died in the College, during the invasion of Hong Kong and subsequent internment.

During the Battle for Hong Kong in 1941, St. Stephen’s College was used as a hospital, but on Christmas Day, the invading Japanese troops entered it and killed many of the patients and staff there. After Hong Kong’s surrender, the College became an internment camp for civilians until the end of the war. The beautiful memorial window over the West door was generously donated, and depicts not only the suffering in the internment camp, but the faith, hope and love which sustained so many through those years, and which still inspires us today.

There was much debate about how Father Christmas was going to venture in to the apartment this year - we don't have a chimney or balcony. By general consent, it was determined that he'd land on our roof terrace and make his way in to the apartment by way of the front door, naturally. As a reward for his efforts, he and his reindeer team got the traditional offerings of a Mr Kipling's mince pie; a carrot; a can of the local brew (Tsing Tao) and a stuffed cartoon reindeer to shake hands with. Plus they got handwritten instructions on how to help themselves.

By the way, mince pies are bloody expensive in HK!! ... about 50p each by my reckoning ... despite that, I bought a couple of dozen to share with my colleagues on Christmas Eve (OK, they were on offer) -- there appeared to be several tens of boxes remaining in my local-to-work supermarket @ 11:30 on Christmas Eve. The team were bemused by this -- most of them had never eaten a mince pie before. One person announced that the cakes tasted like the stuff they're given to eat as kids to take the taste away from the foul medicine they take! Clearly they were not impressed.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. I slunked off home about 12:30 ... the office officially closed @ 13:00. I was still getting work emails from my team @ 19:30 that night (and Christmas Day morning). It's kind of understandable (Christmas Day is a public holiday here - but quite a few people work still - it does not mean much to the locals), but weird none-the-less.

Incidentally, a couple of the above pics, together with a number below were take by Archie -- I think he has a talent for photography.

M

Christmas day - morning!

A Christmas day morning with the usual flurry of wrapping paper flying!

Christmas day - presents!

Santa treated us to a Christmas present delivery dominated by Boys' Toys. Lego after Lego. Star Wars. Ben 10. New bike for Archie.



And Joss got a Wii Fit -- which I think she likes. I went Wii-jogging the other day and nearly dropped dead with exhaustion (2 mins). I need to do some exercise. Seriously. There are photos of Joss Wii-Fitting, but I hold no hopes of those pictures surviving a Joss-censorship should I dare post them to the blog.

M

Christmas day - day!

We invited a few people round for a fun Christmas lunch and afternoon. 6 adults. 4 + 1 kids. (+1 ... includes 'Dennis' who was c. 6 weeks old). Much champagne. Industrial sized party poppers. Over-active, tired kids. Exhausted parents. Wii Karaoke. Mayhem.

The (I'm told) delicious turkey was bought from the HK Cricket Club (prepared and cooked by them for much much less than it'd cost to buy a decent turkey from a UK butchers). This was my first vegetarian lunch -- we'd made an effort to cook a seasonal nut loaf, but it's not right to eat nut loaf for Christmas lunch. I was nearly tempted to try some meat - but no. Actually, confession: I took a mouthful of the Cricket Club supplied stuffing -- it was absolutely outstanding! And then I realised it was made from sausage meat. Whoops. And an opportunity for me to wear my chef's tunic.

If the weather is as good in 2009 as it was on Christmas day 2008, we're thinking about having lunch on the roof terrace.

M

Elmer the Elephant pays us a visit

I think it's a right royal pain in the ****, but it must be doing some good or else the teachers would not let it happen every year right?

I'm talking about the annual adoption of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant of course. One week in the first term of school, we have to look after Elmer. This means taking pictures of it in situ and then writing about "my week with Elmer" in the "Elmer diary". It's a true pain dragging this bloody thing around and then printing off 1/2 doz photos and writing the entry in the (only) 3 free hours you get on a Sunday evening before you have to return the thing + the diary next morning. Actually, Joss does the work of course. I just grumble about it.

Yours, grumpy middle-aged Mark