Imagine a sign saying "No Screaming"....who enforces that??

While out cycling today I noticed a sign hanging on the gate of a small basketball court.  It had 3 commands on the sign.

1. No Screaming.
 2. No Ball Games.
3. Who cares because you just took away all the fun with the first two commands!!!

And you see, as I cycled on by, I reflected on why so many Chinese families choose bubbles as their preferred form of entertainment in parks.  Bubbles are safe, noone gets hit with them, noone finds them that fun that they start screaming either, so you are safe on two big no no's....but lets face it, bubbles are good for like 5 minutes then you want something else to do.  Well actually thats only my kids, the Chinese kids I see think bubbles are way cool....they play with those things the whole time they are at the park.

Obviously it comes down to expectations.  I see a park, or a small basketball court, as a place for fun and exercise.  A place where my kids can run around, making heaps of noise, and blow off some steam.  The Leisure Department obviously sees them in a different light....they are places of serenity and calm, concrete walled enclosures where people will just walk around the painted lines, forwards or backwards they don't mind, as long as they don't run or make noise or heaven forbid actually throw a ball into one of those dreaded hoops!!

I didn't know that I was bought up to believe a whole lot of things until I arrived in Hong Kong.  I thought everyone thought the same on some things, not others of course, but some things.  Like a beach is for swimming in if the weather is hot - well you see you shouldn't take things like this for granted....because not everyone thinks the same.  The beach is a dangerous place that one must warm up for (no kidding they put that over the loud speakers and I have seen fathers showing their children how to warm up in the shallows, hysterical let me tell you!!).  It's a place to be very cautious about even if the sky is blue and the waves a mere ripple.  I have been on the beach when they warned everyone to leave the water as the waves may be high and I swear I couldn't see a ripple out there.  It's hard not to feel like an intrepid traveller who is very daring when you actually decide you will keep swimming despite the warning from the speakers....when in fact you are just being a sensible hot adult!

But I digress - I think Hong Kong is a great place to live, its just that I can't always understand everything and find I ponder things in those rare moments when my whole attention is not taken up by 3 children.  And speaking of those 3 children I have just looked back through my photos and realised I haven't blogged about our lives for too long again....its netball's fault, it sucks my will to live, I just want to veg and watch West Wing when I find myself at home.....but here goes.....life in Hong Kong over Chinese New Year and Easter.

We had the best Chinese New Year, and the worst Easter so I guess that equals it all out :)

Noah's birthday fell right around Chinese New Year celebrations so the cake had to go to school early.  This year he chose Billy The Plane (that only means something to people who have the cake making book) and I thought it looked ok considering it was cooked in a glorified toaster.  Paul nicknamed it the Stingray which I can definately see his point.  The kids only noticed the M & M's so they were super happy.

For his 6th birthday Noah just wanted a family day - awwww so cute.  Actually I think he forgot he had said this because he asked me later why he hadn't had a party....Oh well son, a mother never forgets it when her son says he doesn't need a party this year!!!  We took the whole family out to the Dumbo restaurant.  This 3 story floating restaurant has a buffet breakfast on the top deck.  It was brilliant fun except for the fact it was a boat and we had an 18 month old to watch.  But other than that it was great, free flowing sparkling wine and yummy buffet food.  Pretty good for a 6yr old do I thought.

One of the great things about Chinese New Year (I know this blog is pretty late!!! considering this all happened in Feb of this year!).....is all the colourful decorations they put up at this time.  I took a photo of this large poster and I got lots of photos of lanterns (coming up later :).

 So after that great day of yummy food and fun times out on the floating Dumbo restaurant the next day we wisely headed to the Yee's house to join them for a hike.  We hiked out from their apartment and it was really lovely.  Just the right temp, cool so you didn't get too hot while walking, but no freezing breezes to chill us when we stopped for food.   Our kids love hanging out with these guys...they are such nice kids.....

This is how Tobias does food on the run

A lovely view for lunch

Wish I was this small and could just sleep as someone carried me!!

Just hanging out

Following on from the hike the day turned out so nice that we all went to the reservoir and hired the pedal boats - man what a fun time.  The kids were with me while Paul was lucky enough to score Lizzy and Isaac.  Thank goodness I had Abby Yee on board, for a 13 yr old she sure knows how to power up those pedal boats, she was yelling instructions at me like a drill sargent!  Mind you if she hadn't we would have been beached many a time as our steering was back to front, so think lady backing a trailer and that was me in charge of that boat!!!

We had bread on board to feed the ducks but Paul pretty quickly made it into a food fight on the water!!!  The kids loved it!!  The other Chinese families paddling around quietly could not believe it!!  Such noise and pandomonia.  Bet we were breaking quite a few rules that day!!  Laughing and shouting probably being two of them....

We raced at each other, reversed up to zoom away while chucking lovely wet yucky bits of bread the whole time - what a tummy work out I got from laughing so much!!

This is a view of Pauls charge at our boat - amazing that I had time to grab the camera as he raced at us with his minions ready to bombard us with bread!

Next on the holiday list was going to Tai Po Park with Darsie and her clan.  Now let me explain to those not in the Hong Kong weather know.....Chinese New Year is notoriously wet.....and cold.....and the Chinese like it this way as it bodes for a prosperous New Year the colder and wetter it is.....so just to say that there must be a whole lot of unprosperous people around here as the weather for this holiday was spot on startling!!! 

This wonderful waterfront park was filled to the brim with Chinese lanterns and they looked so wonderful up in the trees - like massive flowery blooms.

After playing soccer and eating lunch we took the kids to the Bug House (not sure what its official name is).  They really liked it in there (not just because of the air con either!)

After looking around the Bug House we ended up along their pathway that was supposed to allow us to see all of said bugs.  Gotta say wasn't too sad to only come across this pretty butterfly (it's the sort of bug that I like to see, the rest I just pretend to like so my kids don't grow up totally fear full of bugs like myself :)

We finished up with a drink thank goodness, it was soooooooooooo hot this day!!!

I tried to get Tobias to go to sleep at one stage (what was I thinking!!!) and so took him off for a walk along the waterfront.  As I say its a pretty nice park so heres a couple of shots to give you an idea of it.

And that was it....Chinese New Year was all done and everyone raced back into working mode...of which I will update you in my next blog (promise it will actually be written in the same month that I send it next time :)

Life back in Hong Kong

So I made it back in one piece with 3 children in my care. There was a moment there where I thought I might just curl up and die when Noah turned a nasty shade of green all of sudden and I found myself trying to unsucker Tobias from my neck while urgently whispering to Noah to aim for the aisle if he thought he was going to be sick – sorry Cathay, but it was the only way I could see to make sure you tidied it all up :) Thankfully his green shade faded after he had a sleep and the rest of the trip continued without a hiccup (or a spew up).

 (notice the necklace - she is so into details!!! She chose the necklace and headband to look nice for the trip, can you believe she is my daughter, I mean I am lucky to remember knickers each day!!)

Once back life just seemed to reeve right on back to the 100mph life I had known before leaving for NZ. Dear little Tobias took over India's spot at our playgroup. I had to leave poor India at home while Tobias and I took off to SKIP. He loved it!! Here is a photo of one red faced little boy determined to bath all the dollies, one after the other.

 I turned my back for one moment and he had a foot in the bath tub. I did have to extract him as SKIP is no playcentre and this sort of play is totally NOT acceptable in Hong Kong. Tobias was pacificied by playing with the water in the sink....water is water you know....

So although India has had to stop going to playgroup at SKIP (she's now officially too old....they don't understand the concept of mixed ages playing together here) we still run our playgroup at home on a Tuesdays.  Her two little friends Reia and Mackie come along, plus the other siblings and Stef's twins – not bad when you consider how small our place is with no outdoor area barring our tiny wee deck. But we have a blast. One day we had a Pinkilicious Day in honour of the book we were reading at the time. Lucky old Noah managed to come to that one. We made pink cupcakes and decorated them, and drank pink lemonade. 

Just the other day we looked at how cabbage juice will change if you add acid or alkaline things to it (goes either blue or red instead of the normal purple). Well Mackie and India were in total raptures!!! Of course having a bit of baking soda and vinegar added into the mix helped with the chemical reactions.

When we aren't participating in any playgroups the kids and I have as much messy fun as you can in a WHITE apartment!! I love the kids to have a chance to use the paint as much as possible so we usually pull that out at least once a week . The other day we were painting straight onto the table and taking prints of our pictures. 

 Tobias was just “enjoying” the feeling of the paint under his one tentative finger when India started to paint her tummy orange. It was helpful that she was in her knickers (the normal attire for kids at our house, even for their friends....I wonder what that is about? Come to our house and take your clothes off.....they all say our apartment is warm but still) as she then started painting her chest and legs and arms. 

 Ohhhh it must have felt glorious, so cold and smooth. She was giggling away intent on her task, not quite sure if it was naughty or not but enjoying the thrill of pushing any boundaries I might try to erect. Tobias watched her and finally asked me to paint his hand – daring!! Finally once India was covered in orange I asked her what she was. She thought about it and decided she was a tiger, to which I pointed out that she needed some black stripes to hide herself in the grass. These were applied, and then she leapt down to show me her tigerish moves....

Noah has started his soccer classes and my goodness, the coach is in for some fun!! The first time he got to actually play against a team mate he scored a goal – in his own goal! Never one to be deterred by small things like this Noah raced back to his waiting team with a big smile and declared “Well that wasn't meant to happen” - you just gotta love his confidence that everyone will love him despite that obvious misdeed....the other funny thing is that Noah has been totally influenced by the computer soccer games he plays and now runs and dives just like an animated character! Paul and I laugh about the way he celebrates when he scores a goal, kind of like the Queen waving – just like he sees them do it on Fifa!!!

The other weekend I told Paul that we needed to get over to Happy Valley Racecourse nice and early. This is the sort of thing Paul hates....having to move our labour intensive lot out the door quickly, while racing off to something that only I think is worth a visit. Well I insisted that it would be good and no one could pop my balloon of enthusiasm. Boy Noah gave it a good go, he stabbed away with comments like “all the horses will probably be finished by now, there won't be any point going” and “this will be so boring!!!”. But I was unpoppable, off in my own little world thinking about watching some racehorses. When we pulled up to the ultra flash racecourse in our ghetto rider they must have thought the cleaners had found the wrong entrance, but I was all smiles and grabbed Noah and India and pulled them through to where all the horses were being marched around. 

We all chose the colour of rider we liked best then waited while the horses made their way to the starting box. You can tell by the smiles on the faces that two little children thought this actually was a brilliant idea – thanks mum for making us do things we don't want to do (they weren't actually saying that but I just imagine they are, its what keeps me suggesting outrageous things to do all the time). 

Anyway as soon as the horses pounded past us in a blaze India was already saying “Can we see them again?”, but alas Noah was partly right, we had arrived a bit late and that was the last race of the day – but I think next time I want to move them out the door early to get to Happy Valley it won't be so difficult.

So there you have it – life at 100mph!!! I will just leave you with a couple of funnies that popped out of their precious mouths....

• After Noah had been on a school trip to see a play Paul asked him “How was your field trip today?”. Noah looked at him indignantly and then replied “We didn't go to a field today!”.

• India and Noah were cuddling up with Paul in bed one morning. They were chatting to each other about how snuggly Daddy was. India wisely commented that she thought he was snuggly cause of all his hairs.

• Noah was gazing in the mirror the other day and said to me “Mum my hair is going white”. I thought he meant blonde so I corrected him, but he went on “No I mean white, must mean I am getting old!”

 (India and myself out for a bike ride on our new waterfront path)

 (Pauls mixed touch team won the National Winter League - go Dragons!!!)