He's just turned 5, but already he is saying he is nearly 6!!!

I feel so sorry for Noah and myself, we both have big important birthdays this year.  February marks his 5th birthday, and April will see me join the next category on all the surveys - the over 40's group!!!  So sad for both of us that we can't be at home in NZ to share our ageing with our best friends and family - BUT never fear, we both plan on milking the situation and are having Hong Kong birthdays + NZ birthdays - so maybe I don't feel so sorry for us after all :)

 not feeling too sorry for myself....

Noah likes to call these extra birthday experiences "spare birthdays" - I really like this concept, I wish we could have spare weekends, spare sleep-ins, spare holidays!!!  Well this is the second year Noah has managed to get 3 spare birthday parties - he got one in January while the grandparents were here.

the Christmas gingerbread cake that 

doubled as one of Noah's spare birthday cakes

Then he had a cake and pressies at our playcentre in Hong Kong....

                                                                  Treasure Island cake

Then he had a birthday party for the actual weekend.....lets just say I am glad I spaced my kids out because I am over making cakes right at the moment!!!!  I keep suggesting that Paul can take over next year but I am just too much of a control freak to actually let him do it (I know he would either just buy some Countdown sponge cake, or just do without it - he knows I know this so it is a moot argument, but I keep trying it).

His actual birthday was great fun - pancakes for breakkie, then off to Bumble Tots (an indoor playground) with 2 of his best friends, Jesse and Alliana.  The mums loved it as the kids played from 10.30 - 2.30 - just fantastic!!!!  We got to chat and look after Tobias.  Once Paul got home Noah got to open his pressies.  He had already got a bike, so the rest weren't that impressive, mainly games (but he did get an MP3 player so he can listen to stories and songs in the car without having to contend with his lip-syncing sister!!!)

the new wheels  

(we got rid of the trainers as soon as we got home, he is flying around now)

I had to think long and hard about his party as he only literally has about 3 friends, plus their siblings, here in Hong Kong.  Finally I settled on a bike party at Paul's school.  I sort of figured if only one other kid showed up they would still have fun zooming bikes around.

Noah and his two lovely friends Jana and Jesse

Actually it was a fantastic day.  I was a bit tired after completing yet another cake making marathon the night before (he had suggested a lego fire station - I totally vetoed that one!!), but quickly came around as the socialising bug hit me.  It was the easiest party around, no games, no food except Pizza Hut and fizzy drinks and cake - everyone bought a bike, or borrowed them from the school so we had to drag them away at the end kicking and screaming (one way to tell it was a good party, they didn't want to leave) - and we tidied up in 15 mins - brilliant!!!!

Noah and Archie (his one male friend)

Pirate cake

So there you have it, my darling wee boy is 5 years old.  He is so tall now, and lanky, you can kind of narrow your eyes and see what he will be like at 15 yrs old (way taller than me!!!).  He is one fun person to be around that is for sure, full of excitement and laughter, and brilliant one liners that leave us cracking up.

Tobias cracking up

So just to let you know, there will be a spare 5 year old party to end all parties in July, in NZ - be there or be square!!!

Chinese New Year....

....or as they refer to it here as the Lunar New Year (politically correct and all).....sort of like the printed words you find in Christmas cards these days - happy holidays or some such thing, just so noone will be offended!

Anyway, I still called it Chinese New Year, and I realised pretty quickly that I wasn't really prepared for this momentous event.  Next year I will be ready with my cash filled envelopes - slightly embarassing to have several given to our kids and we had nothing to give in return (I suppose I could have made them a marmite sandwich and had a cultural exchange of sorts - but alas I was so ashamed at having nothing in my hands that I sort of slunk away after they gave the envelopes to the kids, and changed the subject).  Next year I will also force my husband to buy the most wonderful mini daffodils - ohhhh they smelt glorious!  They might even block out the odours coming from our smelly toilet!!! (gotta love asian plumbing, not!).  And next year I will look up the timetable of the dragon dance (rather than take my helpers word on it) so I don't drag my family to a freezing ghost town again!

So, enough about next year, what did we do this year?  One whole week off for Paul but don't think you're resting darling, oh no, we have a whole city to see :) 
Naturally I booked it up heavily....Friday afternoon we shot off to Bumble Tots over in Ma On Shan to try out their indoor playground. 
What a great way to use up many hours in the day.
Kids were happy as larry, Mum and Dad were able
to just sit there, not talking just sleeping with our
eyes open - BLISS!!!

Next day we were out early to tramp the Aberdeen Reservoir walk (refer last post).  We started off with a look at the Police Museum.  If only we didn't have 2 pre-schoolers with us we would have found out heaps about crime in Hong Kong.  They had an opium lab set up, and triad information, boats that refugees used as well as the best selection of police uniforms through the ages - very funny!!!  We had our own personal Chinese security guard flanking us the whole time - just incase we needed to ask where the exit was, or was he worried we might enjoy ourselves a bit too much and he would need to intervene ;)

Future policeman?

All over Hong Kong they had these amazing decorations which must cost the goverment a bomb - (don't worry, they won't be out of pocket, we are keeping them with a nice passive income through our parking ticket addiction!) - the temples are decocrated, the streets have lanterns everywhere, the supermarkets get into the act and play cute chinese music, and basically it is very festive and wonderful.

The decorations at our apartment

One place you can see all of these wonderful decorations and New Year celebrations is at the week long market they set up in Victoria Park.  We shot off there one night to check it out.  Fantastic fun!!  Like the Easter Show within Meadowlands.  There were flowers and flowers and flowers.....

Mini Daffodils

And all sorts of fruit trees that were meant to bring prosperity and good luck (fruit that is round or golden in colour is meant to be good luck).  There was this really weird looking tree which we saw everywhere.  I have no idea if it actually grows like this but here is a picture of it - if you know what it is let me know cause I am still none the wiser.

weird fruit tree

There was so much food at the market, and yet I was too scared to try most of it because if it wasn't black, or wobbly, or stinky, or fishy, or dried, or fried then it was in a packet and considered not very authentic by myself.  Eventually I recognised something from our fruit and vege shop in Highland Park (pretty funny huh, come all the way over here to eat something you can buy for $3.00 back in NZ).  Fried sesame crescents, bet they have a way flasher Chinese name but thats my description for them - yummmmm - so neally ate the whole lot!

me at Victoria park

Because this was our date night, and most of the time we walked around with our mouths open just gawking at everyone, we decided to go have a wine.  Check out the photo below to see the car that was parked outside the wine bar we went in!!!  When Noah saw the photo he asked Paul if that was one of the cars he had looked at when looking for our family car!  Ha ha, kids are great aren't they, like you could fit even one kid in that car, doubt it.

flash as car

On the actual night of the real Chinese New Year (they celebrate it for a whole week) they have these awesome fireworks.  It was really cold on this particular night and we had told Noah as a special treat he could come out with us to watch the fireworks.  We went to Pauls school to watch them and it was brilliant.  Noah had a blast even though he was freezing!!  They went on for over 20 minutes and apparently had all these meanings that were lost on someone as nieve as myself....I just loved the pretty colours :)

Freezing while watching the fireworks

Fireworks

Chinese New Year is notorious for bad weather.  It is a good sign for the coming year apparently (what a conundrum.....for the Chinese to be happy it has to get really cold, for me to be happy it has to be as warm as possible, how does this get solved?  I know, we go to Thailand next Chinese New Year :)  So anyway, they got there wish, it was freezing all week.  We had decided to visit Discovery Bay on Saturday and yeh, it was the first warm day we had had all week.  We caught the train then the ferry over there.

Ferry photo

What a great place!!  We ate at this restaurant which had a big wooden boat that kids could play on.  What a brilliant solution for parents with kids....it was the first meal we have had out that I actually enjoyed!!  (it could have been the sangria taken on an empty stomach as well).  We lazed around there as long as we could, then finally when the whinges became too hard to ignore we shot off to the beach.

The best restaurant!!!

In Discovery Bay you walk everywhere as no cars are allowed in (only buses and mini vans).  If you are uber wealthy you drive these dinky little golf carts, but the rest of us just walk.  Its so nice to see everyone out strolling around.  The kids had a blast at the playground on the beach.  I had to feed and change Tobias while they played, and poor fellow, the sun was shining, so I popped my glasses on him so he didn't have to squint - he looked so adorable!!!

Tobias with glasses on

Well after strolling around pretending we lived in amazing beach front apartments with golf carts parked outside we cruised back to the ferry for the trip back to reality.  Back to work, back to being mummy of 3 kids all at home....but we got to remember our great week of being tourists here in Hong Kong.

Tramping, hiking, ambling in Hong Kong

Can you believe it.....we who have been brought up to hate winter and to moan about the weather incessantly, (its all part of being an Aucklander), actually are enjoying the fact it is cold.  We are relishing the mist that hangs over the towering buildings and hills, loving the chilly air and the fact it forces us to wear all of our polypro undies.  How could this transformation occur in only 6 months of living in Hong Kong????  How did this asian city drive out our deep hatred of winter!!!!  Just the sheer fact that we can do something outside without sweating, oh yes folks, when you have a far greater thing to hate (ie the humidity) then suddenly the lesser evil (a wee bit of cold) is a thing to be rejoiced in, complimented even.


It all began in the middle of last year when I was toting around this trendy thing called a 'bun in the oven'.  I found if I stepped outside our air conditioned apartment for a millisecond I was bathed in sweat.  And it was during this very uncomfortable season that people mentioned to me about the wonderful hiking in Hong Kong.  I have to say I thought they were insane, or just plain cruel to make me imagine walking outside somewhere (it made me sweat to just think about it, called for a full blown air conditioning face blast!).  But you know what!!!  They were right!!!  The hiking is really great....they just forgot to mention that you have to wait until January to do any.

Clearwater Bay Country Park

Our first hike was with bated breath as we had no idea how Noah or India would do walking along trails (not to mention the slightly freaky issue of snakes over here - with of course the worst part being the smaller they are the more lethal their bite :(  We were also a bit worried about Tobias and whether he would freeze his little toes off, or need to feed and then I would freeze (probably noone else was worried about this one).  But all of our fears came to naught - Noah loved it.  He was a real little Bear Grills, looking out for any monkeys or snakes (these were the two things we mentioned to get his appetite for tramping up and running, of course he wasn't going to forget those words so we had to endure a LOT of questions about when those animals were going to make an appearance).

 The only animal we saw were these prayer flags (we called them animals just so Noah would get off our backs)  We also found an abandoned sock in a tree which we called a Sock Animal.  All this made up animal stuff just to show him how varied the native animals are here :)

India was pretty good, she sort of thinks she is more coordinated than she is (this means she falls over more, means I have to carry her on my back a bit more...but hey, with 3 kids you take any outing with a grain of salt in the ratio of tears to happiness).

Here is a photo of the family before we left the carpark.  All smiles.  I didn't take a photo at the other end when 2 grim faced adults were dragging one hungry boy, and carrying 2 crying kids - it just wouldn't look as appealing.

The following weekend I suggested we go out again, and as Clearwater Bay Country park is only 5 mins drive, we opted to go and do a different walk in the same park.  Noah chose this one (why oh why did we let the 4 year old choose, he thinks a hill is a fun place to play!!)  and it was very steep.  I was concerned about coming down (didn't want our descent to be airborn) so after our chocolate stop we headed back down.


The steep steps

 The wonderful views at Clearwater Bay Country Park (second walk)

At the bottom of the hill we were able to enter the area of the park where you can have BBQ's and fly kites (I told you about this in an earlier post) and it also has a tree walk.  We decided to do this one to finish up our Sunday afternoon stroll.  No photos of this walk, but just wanted to prove that we aren't total babies for coming down the hill before really doing a good hike.

Then during Chinese New Year I convinced Paul that we should try a slightly longer hike.  I told him about one that was from The Peak down to Aberdeen.  It said it should take 2 hours, but as it wasn't hot, and it was all in the bush, and I had lots of chocolate with me, I figured the worst that could happen was me freezing while feeding Tobias.








Well the first challenge was actually finding the start of the track.  I was following some written instructions (ie no map) and Paul and I were having one of those adult conversations you have in front of your kids where you don't want to openly come out and blame the other person for not knowing what they are doing, but you just say things like "so don't you know where to go?" or "well I have the same instructions as you, so you read them and tell me where to go" - you know the kind of conversations I am talking about right.  The tension was rising as we wandered around and around.  I was so happy when Noah and I found the rather well signposted hike.

This hike was the best yet.  I could not believe I was in central Hong Kong.  You could not see anything except trees (ahem, maybe the odd electrical pylon was lurking around but I could block that out the odd time I saw them).  The tramp led us down a valley, over both the upper and lower reservoir bridges.  It was so picturesque.  That description should let you know that this entire walk was down hill which was just fantastic....except my legs were killing me the next day as going down hill is actually really hard on your thigh muscles (especially as I had India on my back for a lot of the tramp - our fault for having her out late the night before).

It is really interesting that the people in charge of all public areas over here cannot let you just have a nice experience, you must also either learn something, or physically benefit in some way.  You know in the park the playgrounds all have the alphabet all over them, and numbers stuck everywhere, and stupid games that no kids plays but makes the adults feel better about letting them play for a bit.  Well, on this hike they had exercise stations, can you believe it!  I mean it wasn't enough to just do 2 hours hiking, oh no, you might have some extra energy lurking around and well, they had to get rid of it quick fast to make you totally satisfied with your hiking experience.  So I noticed these exercise stations and wondered what sort of people would use them - no idea there as I didn't see anyone on them.....until we came to one station that we convinced Noah to do.  The foot massage area.  It was brilliant!!!  The best Hong Kong thing I have seen so far.  Here is a picture of it.

Basically they just put a whole lot of smooth stones in the concrete and you take your shoes off and wander around on them.  What a lovely idea to have part of the way through a walk - imagine that at the end of the Tongariro Crossing, bliss!

The end of the tramp hurried up to meet us and I have to say it was a bit of shock to the system to pop out of the bush onto a busy Hong Kong road with whining mini buses and smelly exhaust fumes....but there you have it, even though you can't see the city it is still there, brimming with life.  Of course a big tramp calls for some sort of treat so here is a photo of the troops chomping their almond cookies while waiting for a taxi.  Happy and sated once again.....

1060sqf of fun for Christmas

Getting in the Christmas spirit on the 1st December....

Thats right folks, we had the NZ crew staying over Christmas in our wee apartment....oh the fun we had!!! Lynne was in Tobias' room so she had to live with his cot in her face (the room isn't wider than a cot and single air bed next to each other). She tried several arrangements in there, cot at the side next to the air bed, cot at the back and air bed at the front etc....all because of the loud squeaks the air bed made when it touched the wall, the thing was, there was no configuration that didn't mean the air bed touched the wall - the room is just too darn small!! And then ma and pa were staying in the kids playroom, and well you know grandchildren assume they can do anything anyway, well my parents had to contend with the kids playing in their room, rifling amongst their stuff finding all sorts of interesting things (glasses, presents etc).

But sleeping arrangements aside, we had a blast!!! I had planned a full on timetable, trying to take in all that Hong Kong had to offer (I failed miserably, but I suppose a tummy bug that took us all out for 2 days could be to blame?? or the fact that Hong Kong has so much stuff to do that multiple trips are required hint hint to everyone reading :)

We took them up the peak tram on their first day. Its just great fun trying to fold up a Mountain Buggy and fit it onto the tram. Just imagine trying to fit a people mover into a parking space for a mini - good old Paul, he always gets the security people coming up to him reminding him to collapse it at least 10 mins before the actual event of getting on the tram....they are obviously freaked out by the size of a buggy like this and fear it will get stuck and hold up their tight schedule. But he managed to wrestle it on and Tobias had a brilliant time lying in his Moses basket on our laps while we went up. Unfortunately the weather was not so good so the view was average but still a pretty exhilirating ride. We chose a noodle place for lunch so had some sweaty upper lips and happy campers about how authentic everything was :) Check out the video of Lynne trying to use her chopsticks, notice I am filming rather than being filmed...I am useless with them!!

Believe it or not Hong Kong actually gets quite cold, so we were looking for somewhere a bit warmer to visit next....what better place than a shopping mall - but it was with a very specific purpose (but hey, if you are in a shopping mall you need to shop too right!!) - too visit the best Santa in Hong Kong (or so the chat rooms said). We rocked up to Pacific Place with high expectations....

Santas pad looked pretty impressive, there was a long queue, so we joined in. Thankfully there was a cafe right there next to the queue so we took turns sitting having a drink and acutally manning our place. I was telling everyone that this Santa was flown in from Canada each December just to do this role so he must be the shizz...well we finally got inside and maybe Santa has changed from when I was a kid, or maybe this one was on drugs?? But I had to prompt him with his lines...I mean Noah had been practicing what to say during his long wait in the queue and we were just waiting for the questions "have you been good?", "what do you want?" you know come on, not hard script to follow, but apparently the Santa from Canada just plain forgot and just wanted to put his hand on my shoulder and smile blankly at the camera. Finally I prompted him with a gentle "Do you want to know what he wants for Christmas?"....and Noah turned around and said one word of his speech "Lego" and we were ushered out. When asked by his grandparents how was it, Noah replied "Well I told Santa what I wanted but he didn't say anything" - I should definately go back to the chat room and say the Canadian Santa is a drongo!

Next day - shopping!!!! Oh yes, the girls were in heaven....Ikea etc...Paul had to man the kids at the indoor playground (thanks honey) and we just had Tobias who was very obliging, and only woke up when we got to Starbucks.

The thing is you see, moving that many people around takes time (much to the frustration of my dad who can't seem to understand why little humans take twice as long as big humans to get ready) - so we never seemed to get anywhere early. This proved to be a real big problem on the day we went to see the Reclining Buddha. It is over on Lantau Island so we had the fun of driving over these massive bridges, but that was were the fun stopped. The line to get on the cable car was going be over an hour and with 2 wriggly toddlers that was going to be hell - so we called it a day and whizzed over the outlet malls, yet again the ladies were in raptures. Everyone loved the Espirit store and it was only restless toddlers that forced our exit (mum and I were already talking about when she came back how we would visit there again with no kids next time)

We really wanted to give the parents a Chinese 'experience' for Christmas and toyed with the idea of wonton classes or a Chinese cooking class. Finally we decided on a junk boat ride so Christmas Eve saw us cruising around on the Hong Kong harbour. It was such a lovely thing to do. This ancient teak junk motored (a nod to modernisation) up to the pier and a very small group of us jumped on board. Noah was just old enough to come with us and he was so excited to be aboard a real "pirate" ship. They put up the sails and we had an hours cruise looking both at Kowloon side and Hong Kong island.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve over at our friends house. Apparently it is a custom of theirs to have this big party for those ex-pats still in Hong Kong for Christmas. We all had to do an item (thanks Paul for the reindeer rap you made up)and then we had a lovely festive meal followed by candle lit carols. It was so nice being surrounded by people (and some of them being family) all singing about the real reason for Christmas. We all had such a great time...the kids just loved it as this family has a tramp and lots of lawn for running around.

Christmas Day dawned and we actually all got to sleep in until after 7am as we had the kids up late the night before. Each of them chose one present to open before breakfast and yeah, Noah's pressie took him all morning to construct so we were free to chat, yawn and cook until neally lunch time. India was happy with her dolly and spent all that time either 'helping' her brother with his fire station construction, or attending to her dolly's rather over active bowels (frequent nappy changes were required, always involving number 2's). It was such a relaxing Christmas Day. Only one house to visit. No driving required and we had ordered in the turkey and only had to heat up the ham and cook roast veggies, I think I got out of my pj's around 4pm :) Oh and did I mention the mulled wine was lovely (Tobias slept well that night!)

I had plans for ferry trips out to one of the islands, a small spot of tramping on one of the beautiful walks, visiting Noah's Ark and of course taking in some markets. We got through none of it. Instead we enjoyed shopping at the local shopping centres, great shoes! And all of us didn't enjoy being laid up with something that Lisa called the Hong Kong Dog....the most dreadful tummy bug I have ever seen. Lynne, Mum and I did manage a walking tour of Sheung Wan which was lovely. It is one of the older areas on Hong Kong island so we had fun trying to guess what the weird looking things in the baskets were (dried innards of some animal I think). We found this lovely cafe and just generally enjoyed being kid free for a couple of hours in an exotic location. Of course China has this way of being so very authentic, what with half goat carcasses hanging beside the sidewalk, or sharks fins in baskets outside, or people carrying very long bits of bamboo around just for the heck of it. Funny though, its those experiences, that make a holiday memorable.

Speaking of memorable I forgot to mention about New Years Eve. Dad had flown back by this stage, so now we were down to 4 adults and 1 baby to move around on this big night.  I had booked us into this renown Pekking Duck restaurant which happened to be down at TST (downtown Kowloon ie very, very busy!!!) - what was I thinking??? about the food of course, and the authentic experience.....I was not thinking about the parking, the driving, the crowds...but so glad I wasn't thinking about those things because it would have put me off booking and as it all panned out it was a brilliant night.  Being the every vigilant kind of people they are, the police had put this entire lockdown in place on the roads around where the restaurant was so we were out of luck trying to park close by.  As we were also trying to watch the laser light show Lynne, Mum and I jumped out of the car and left Paul and Tobias to find a car park.  We managed to catch the laser light show which required us to turn 360 degrees continually for 10 mins or so that the show went on - not sure if all the tourists were looking like spinning tops but we didn't want to miss a single beam of light.

After all the hullabaloo settled down we got in contact with Paul and he had only had to park a short walk away - he hadn't accidentially left the sleeping Tobias in the car so we were on schedule to make it to our restaurant at 9pm (they sure do eat late over here :)  It all would have gone smoothly if only we could have A) understood the Cantonese instructions from the restaurant, or B) got our google maps to actually decide where exactly to put the restaurant as the pin it had WAS NOT THE RESTAURANT!!  Got to say its a good night to get lost on, we just wandered around looking at all the lights and people, but finally we saw the road and raced upstairs to partake in a very, very yummy dinner.  We were obviously the waiters comedy show that night as they loved gesturing and running to show us different things we could/should have.  They carved the duck right at the table (half the ruddy thing stayed on the carcass.....we wanted to pick that little quacker to bits but alas they wheeled the little fella off and we never saw any more of him)

The holiday came to an end too quickly.....and we sadly said goodbye....Noah keeps telling India that its not long until we go to NZ (no idea of time yet bless him)....but we will see everyone mid June...

Theres one person who could see the funny side of our farewells....little Tobias.....

Wall of Joy

I’m sitting here on a Friday night looking at the city lights in the distance and our newly established Christmas tree in the foreground. It is clearly too long since we last enlightened the world of our Hong Kong adventures. Actually, I can’t be too sure whether this is because life here has become more “normal” or if we have just been too busy lately. Anyway, one thing I do know is that life with three little ones never ceases to be full of interesting comments and events. Donna (this is Paul speaking) is out at a book club that she has started and left me with ALL three kiddies. Hmm. So right now I am at home on a Friday night with three kids and Donna is at a book club. Not exactly the recipe for thrilling stories.

I cast my eyes toward our Wall of Joy. This is where we write down funny stuff that happens in our lives so as not to forget it. So, while peace reigns here I’ll drop you a few funnies from the mouthes of babes…

In our family we call snot boog-goes (this is the phonetically correct way to spell this). For reasons unknown to us our children are really fixated on boog-goes. I am sure that Freud would have something to say about this, but we are just confounded by it all. The other day Noah declared, “I have boog-goes in my ear mum!” Concerned Donna swung around to find out what was wrong with his ear… Only to notice that Noah had just discovered earwax. India’s speaking is coming along really well and a few nights before Noah came across his earwax I went to check what India was doing making a noise at 8.30pm. I said, “Are you doing a poo?” She replied, “Yes… um… NO.” I said, “What is going on then?” Her casual reply was, “Just picking my nose.”

We have had a few rough Skype calls in recent times. For a while we were really used to seeing one of the grandparents “frozen”. Following one of Tobias’ feeds he was zoned out on Donna’s shoulder. India just loves to get close and personal and talk to her brother. So she asked Donna to turn around so she could see him. She promptly declared, “Oh no. Tobias is frozen!”

The other day Noah came rushing into our room in the morning saying, “I’ve got something kicking inside of me.” Donna jokingly said, “Do you think that it is a baby?” He promptly placed his sister’s hand over his heart to let her feel the kicking baby.

Donna wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t tell you about Noah’s powerful observation that, “Dad has a long out chin, like Fireman Sam doesn’t he?” Thanks son.

It seems after nearly 9 years of marriage Donna is completely comfortable making fun of my deteriorating physical state. Recently at church someone had a word that there were people in the congregation who needed prayer because they were losing their hair. I naturally thought about the stress related condition that some people suffer from. But Donna! Her ears plucked up and she raised her eyebrows and mouthed, “That’s you.”

Anyway, that is our news for now. We are totally amped about the upcoming visit from Nan Nan, and Nana and Granddad! Maybe the next entry will be something more meaningful like something to do with Chinese culture!... Or it might be just more snot stories.

Crazy Days of Summer

Those crazy days of summer....

I know all of our family and friends back in NZ are gloating that summer is peeking over the shore line, but may I just brag a little here....ahem.....its officially autumn apparently and we still need to use the air con, and can go swimming in pools and the sea, and the weather on Saturday was devine...sorry but had to say...eat your heart out Aucklanders!!!





Yes, so yesterday being Saturday dawned with blue skies and a lovely warm breeze. The perfect day to have a hellish shopping excursion to Ikea!! No because no day is perfect for Ikea, Ikea was designed by some nasty Swede to make parents life hell. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to make poor parents traverse their way through the whole darn store just to buy a whisk, or a pillow - man it is the ultimate in torture for parents with kids to try to run that gauntlet without one of our darlings manhandling something off a shelf (we just always hope they choose the plastic or fabric things to topple...). Anyway Paul and I ended up being real angry with all of our kids (yes even a baby can have some bad feelings directed at it when it comes to a visit to Ikea, when they cry in the middle of the garden section you just know that backtracking for 5 mins to the cafe is going to cost you big time with your two toddlers!!! That just added at least 45 mins to our flying visit!) - but we did manage to get some pots and an outdoor multi tiered thingy to put our tomatoes and basil on - oh yes, thats right, I am gardening over here...wonder if plants cough when the haze is bad from China?

So I will keep you updated on my mini garden as I just know you are on the edge of your seats wondering what I will grow...I know I can barely sleep, well thats not true, I sleep like a comatose person because Bias keeps waking me up every 2 hours....but when I am awake I get excited when I think about those 4 shelves of opportunity....flowers or produce....hmmmm tough choice....

But this post is meant to be about our Saturday - now that I have vented all my bad feelings about Ikea I can get on with the good part of the day - kite flying!!! Because I am a woman (or maybe its because I am anal and a control freak, haven't really worked out which one to blame) I love to keep lists of potential things to do and I spotted this the other day when Paul gave me half an hour off from kid duty. Kite flying in Clearwater Bay Park. Well I thought, that sounds jolly fun. We have an unopened kite and 3 kids under 5, lets go out and discover Hong Kongs natural resources......




Well Paul agreed and off we sped to find this lovely place. The secret mustn't be that well kept because the car parks and the road were heaving with cars, but never fear, we own a people mover for a reason, it can mount any verge!!! So once we disembarked all 5 of us off we headed to find some english words that would tell us where to go. I like to follow instructions while Paul likes to just wander around and hopefully find something....so we sort of did his thing and it was good, found a great bbq site for future visits....and lovely views of the islands....and then we saw the kites!





We quickly walked up the hill and Noah jumped up and down until we had his kite out and ready for action. Paul promptly threw the instructions away and I quickly went and retrieved them from the rubbish. Thank goodness I did as this video proves, kite flying doesn't come naturally!!!



Once we read the instructions we were away, the kite soared and the kids just loved it (well Tobias had no idea as his mind is filled with only thoughts of milk). It was a total blast. So much fun to race around trying not to get clotheslined by other peoples kites, and you think an All Blacks game is nerve wracking, imagine one little kite and hundreds of dreaded trees for it to catch on, ohhhh my stomach was a mess!!!






Just as we were leaving this guy made up this huge star kite, it was beautiful!!!! Noah was so cute, he had his set of instructions in his hand and was watching anyone who seemed to be having trouble making their kite fly, at their first falter he would hurry over and show them his instructions explaining the process to them.....it was very kind of him....kind of embarassing for us



- so anyway this guy had this really expensive kite and Noah started telling him what he needed to do to make it fly, oh sort of hide in a hole stuff, gotta love 4 year olds, they aren't hung up on pride like us. Well the guy was very gracious and allowed us to help him try to launch his kite - unfortunately even Noah's instructions wouldn't get that kite going - he needed a typhoon to get it off the ground!!



It was a lovely day and the photos prove what a pretty place we found.