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!!!)

Just doing life in Hong Kong...

Life is pretty full on with three kids and as I look back on my photos I just have so many things I want to put in the blog so you can all see us living here.  So this post is just going to be about some of the things we do, as a family or just some things the kids do.

First up, the shinanigans that go on in our house during the morning time.  Noah doesn't set off for school until 11am so we have that morning period to all hang out together which is great but he then finds it pretty hard to pull himself away and get ready for school.  Anyway, heres a series of shots showing the fun that can be had in  a tiny apartment on the dark side of Hong Kong.

noah as a fairy

india with veil

tobias being doctored

funny faces game

Making a bed under the couch

Whoops, where is my head meant to go?

Tobias head riding in his bouncer

At present myself and another kiwi lady by the name of Fiona are setting up Mainly Music at our church.  It is quite nice to have actual "meetings" to attend, wahoo, something official sounding that you can txt to someone....."sorry, have a meeting at that time, can we meet up a bit later" - makes it sound like I really have a job or something :)  Anyway, no photos from that little endeavour as it doesn't start until this Friday as shame anyway as I am by some cosmic joke, going to be leading the thing from the front!!!  ha ha......if I don't mention it again on the blog then you know for sure that I am dreadful at that role :)  But that aside, what I wanted to show you all were photos taken after one of these said meetings when Fiona and I took in the Hong Kong Flower Show....not exactly Chelsea, but a lot of fun.

Globe trotting

remember the Munch Bunch?

I have said it before, but I say it again - COME AND SEE US HERE!!!  THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!!!  HONESTLY, IT IS A GREAT PLACE TO VISIT (we are keen for you to live here of course but don't want to be too heavy handed in trying to attract people to our overseas post :)  So just to seduce you here is another one of the Crowhurst trips around town.......Paul probably rues the day our friend Angelene gave me a book about things to do in Hong Kong.  Being a rather detailed individual I have set about trying to complete all the activities in the book, I have a long way to go but it is fun planning something for each Saturday (well fun for me, can't speak for Paul....I don't think he would say fun as the first thing that springs to mind, but he comes around to the idea once we are in a new place!!)

So one of our latest adventures, a walk through Wan Chai markets up the hill to Hong Kong Park.  Great fun and as it isn't too hot here yet I have been banging on about doing as many walks as possible.

You know the song, "It started with a kiss...." well our song is "it started with silence, never thought it would last so long!!"....the new MP3 player is working a charm on the train....aaaahhhh the bliss of no talking, love it.

First stop was Wan Chai markets.  I am such a mean mummy, I didn't even let the kids buy one thing at the market....we just didn't want to lug it up the hill to the park.  But I must come back and let them have a little bit of money to spend as they want because this market is great...not really for the vegetarians among us as they do believe in their meat being freshly cut up which seems to involve alot of dead animals hanging around in the open air, fascinating playing the 'guess what animal that is' game.

I talked about the hill, well it was epic man!!  I only took us up about 100 wrong steps so wasn't in the bad books too much :|  I was jolly glad Paul was carrying Tobias, I mean I did my time, but he tells me he now knows exactly what it would be like to be preggers with a 17 month old baby, oh boys do exageratte don't they...:)

Once we made it to Hong Kong park our first stop was the walk through water feature.  Now I just can't believe they have this in Hong Kong.  It is so out of character for them to actually let us make a decision concerning safety....I mean someone could slip and fall into the ankle deep water....it surely couldn't possibly be within my mental faculties to decide if I am prepared to take this risk....but apparently somehow someone somewhere forgot to abolish this wonderful fountain, so yeah, we leapt at the change for a bit of controlled risk in our cotton wool existence.

To let the kids dry out we stopped off for lunch at a nice Thai restaurant.  Tobias chilled out under Pauls arm, while the other two were totally overcome by the effort of eating some different kinds of food!!!

The park is in a pretty hilly part of town so it was a trek to get to the playground, but well worth it!  It actually has a sand pit....wow.....so the kids had a grand old time commandeering a couple of diggers of their own to move sand around.  Of course the whole trip ended in tears, it always does, but the rose coloured glasses are on again and I can honestly say - it was a great day :)

On a more parental note, Noah had his first sports day at school.  I have added a couple of obligatory photos to show the physical prowness of our son (actually I was shocked, I mean how hard can it be to throw a wee ball through a basket ball hoop just centimetres from your own nose??  But you know the great thing about Noah, what he doesn't have in physical coordination he makes up for with social skills.  He was the only kid in the whole Reception class who was calling out hi to all sorts of kids.  Most of them didn't answer him back, from shyness I have to infer as we have been told quite a few times that Noah is quite the catch in Reception...a number of marriage proposals have been aimed in his direction.  We are of course taking this very seriously as our financial security could very well be in the hands of our 5 yr old son....if he chooses well we could be retiring in .....hmmmm gee another 15 years....hmmm doesn't sound so good when I say it like that :(

Meanwhile little India has become obsessed with princesses.  We were lucky enough to be in a shopping mall that had erected these massive shrines to Disney.  She happily skipped right up to have an intimate moment with Snow White.

And wee Tobias...he is a monkey....poor guy has ecshma we think, spotty and dotty all over so not the best looker but he has a wonderful laugh and is a very happy baby.  He is rolling around (when he can be bothered), and has two bottom teeth poking through (making chomping on your finger a hazardous task!).  He loves his food and chows down on most things.  He is not interested in a bottle at all, hmmmm lucky mummy!!  He is the worst sleeper our family has encountered what with his eratic wake ups and early morning howling but he is a total joy in our home and the kids love having a little brother.  Paul keeps stirring the pot by asking for votes from the backseats on who wants another brother or sister....they both cry "yes, give us another one", and they both think next time they would like a sister.  Well not out of this tired old body, no siree....this busted tummy is going to spend the rest of its life trying to revert back to its former glory...in vain I feel :)

You know you're in Hong Kong when....

While we were living in Thailand we got used to the saying "T,I,T" which literally means This is Thailand, but translated means "oh that frustrating thing has happened because we live in Thailand and only in Thailand would that be at all acceptable"....like when millions of tiny winged creatures burrowed under the wall into our two bedrooms and took up residence in our guests beds - T,I,T!!, and when we were walking home from watching the rugby one night and about 20 rats ran out from a pile of garbage bags right between our legs - T,I,T!!!  Or when the maids came to clean our bathroom after the toilet had got blocked (they kept suggesting we stop using toilet paper, another T,I,T moment) and when they had left we wondered why the ceiling was dripping wet - T,I,T!!!! - but the best memory was when I tried to hit the fire alarm on our floor of our apartment because the stairwell was filled with smoke and there obviously was a fire in the building, and I discovered that the fire alarm didn't have a button!!!  After smashing my way through the glass I frantically searched for a button, of course when you are searching a 5cm x 5cm area it shouldn't take too long but I was in a panicked state so it took a while to dawn on me that they had forgotten to add a button to actually sound any alarm, so I had to run down the smoke filled staircase to alert the concierge - you see how T,I,T could be used to describe that situation!

So anyway fast forward 5 years and here we are in Hong Kong.  Now they don't have an international saying to describe all the wacky things that happen here, but our family has adopted some sayings that work in frustrating Hong Kong related moments - its the Chinese way, or as Noah puts it "Chinese people just love doing it that way".

So this blog is all about the things that Chinese people do that let me know we are definitely in Hong Kong.....

The need for very specific signage is a favourite pastime of bureaucrats over here.  They must have such fun (although I am sure sense of humour is not part of this job description) coming up with the most pedantic, impossible, contradictory and confusing signs ever.  Here is a photo of one I saw today:

This is just one of the many signs that I think is great

It always makes me think, who will tell me off if I break this rule?  The police?  Is it their jurisdiction to apprehend fence leaners???  Will a Chinese person nark on me if  I lean on the fence, or do they secretly want to do it to?  Do the Chinese admire our blatant ignoring of their signs or are they offended that we like to analyze whether the sign suits our purposes, and if it doesn't then we figure it doesn't apply to our family.  Its kind of a challenge trying to teach Noah about sign reading when we say things like "oh yeah don't worry about that sign, that one and that one, those are just special Chinese signs, but obey this one, this one, and this one"...not very consistent.  Anyway to coin a phrase - T,I,H,K!

I made this list the other day when I was in the supermarket, its when I got the idea for this blog report....here I was buying our family groceries when some hilarious things happened and I just chuckled to myself and thought, yep you know you live in Hong Kong when that happens...so here they are:  revelations from the supermarket.

When you start to view Made in the USA as the safe and healthy food choice you definitely know you live in China!!!  When American bacon is considered by my family to be a better option than eating Chinese bacon you know there is some really horrible options because quite frankly American meat wouldn't even make it to a NZ supermarket much less be chosen over NZ meat.  So it cracks me up (in a sort of manic, freak out, way) when I talk to Row, who lives in Texas, and she tells me why she just won't eat American food because of all the stuff in it....well, I say, you should try the Chinese stuff and your perspective could change.

Just a small thing, but you know you're in Hong Kong when people can just fart in public and its no problem...you know, just bending down to get your can of tomatoes and whoops out pops a big old fart, but never mind, no shame here because apparently that is totally ok!

You know you're in a Chinese supermarket when there is a whole aisle dedicated to soya sauce options...so hard for someone as uninitiated as myself....I don't know, umm can I just have soya sauce please....

And my final laugh on that trip was the fact that no one else thought bottles of Clam juice was a joke, I should have taken a photo - is that a yummy drink you have there?  Oh I see, the latest bottle of Clam juice, yeah have you tried their carbonated one???  Ohhh so gross!!!

So anyway out of the supermarket and onto the footpath....while out power walking the other day it occurred to me that Hong Kong is brilliant for singing out loud when you have your ipod going full blast...the traffic is so loud that you can't hear yourself, and no one else can either!!!  I loved it, I was singing my heart out really badly, and no one was any the wiser.  Had to take a happy photo to prove it really happened...

What a geek, singing away at the top of her voice, very freeing!

Also while on this power walk I happened upon another T,I,H,K moment - you see we live in this new area, it used to be called Junk Bay because 15 yrs ago it was all rural with junks moored in the harbour, now it is full of high rise apartments and dredgers parked in the harbour.  Well anyway, one great thing about this area known as Tseung Kwan O is the amount of paths they have put in so people can walk everywhere.  They go under roads, around stadiums, through parks and up sides of hills.  It is really lovely that you can walk for 2 hours with only small bits of traffic (important if you have a great song you want to do karaoke to!).  So I am trying to walk as many of these paths as possible and just basically allow myself to get lost in Tseung Kwan O knowing that I can grab a taxi home really easily.  It is great fun, not quite Venice, but a similar feeling if not a similar environment. 

Well I was out on one of these pilgrimages and I found this great path that was hugging the hill.  It was amazing, the views were lovely - right out to our apartment block actually.

View of Lohas Park where we live

I was storming up the hill, the only whitey among lots of Chinese families.  Slowly it dawned on me that they were all carrying bags of stuff.  I wasn't sure what they were carrying but I was thinking it was kind of weird to be going up such a steep cliff side walk carrying shopping bags....until I rounded a corner and realised that this wonderful scenic path had been purpose built to lead them to the cemetery!  ha ha....I was chuckling to myself about how I must have looked to them, power walking along to their family cemetery.

So this is where everyone was heading....the cemetery

Well I didn't let that put me off, I went right up to the top and it was very interesting watching what they did at the cemetery.  For one thing it is a real family affair, you would have at least 3 generations usually traipsing up this really steep hill to pay their respects to their dead relatives.  In the infamous bags were a variety of items.  Some things to burn (hope they were light to carry up), food for themselves and to leave at the grave and other mysterious things that looked like bedspreads but just couldn't have been.  There were a couple of old ladies hiding under umbrellas who obviously had some sort of job but I couldn't work out what it was - security???  Anyway it was a great walk as I love to see new things and I wouldn't have normally headed off to a cemetery as a tourist thing to do....and boy they sure give their dead prime real estate!!!  Sea views galore....

So there you have it - hope you got to laugh at all that, you see you have to laugh because there are a number of things that just drive you nuts (like you can't ride your bike in any park, you can't kick a ball in any park, lifeguards must all eat lunch at the same time in the whole of Hong Kong so you can't swim between 12-1pm or 5-6pm, you must not park your car on the street unless it specifically allows you to pay for the privilege etc etc....)

......and laughing is good for the stomach muscles and laugh lines are attractive, so hope I helped you out :)