Last weekend we got to go on another 40th birthday junk boat party, for Wai, whose family we've known since Maggie and their daughter Alicia were one! Since Alex started full day school, Wai's wife Susan and I have been doing yoga and now pilates together. We went to Phuket together over Easter - that was a previous post.

From Wai's 4-0

See Maggie at top left hanging on debating whether to jump... she did! Paul and I jumped together, but Alex wasn't up to it yet...













It was a beautiful day with lots of great food and company and we even got rides on a banana boat. Click the junk boat picture at the top for links to online photos.

HK Labour Day Weekend

Click on the photo above to see more photos on Picasa. We had a couple of days off from school due to HK Labour day and a teacher in-service workday so we had a nice four day weekend. Saturday started out with our normal activities – tap dance for Maggie and trampoline for both kids. After that we headed to Sai Kung Chong Hing Watersports Centre where we went last fall to go camping again. We arrived in time to pick up our tents and sleeping bags to set up camp before starting the BBQ. We opted to bring our own food this time instead of ordering the assorted meat packs from the outside vendor so we had things we wanted, and plenty, except for the chicken wings which proved to be pretty popular. For dessert there were four packages of marshmallows (though we only went through three)! We also had fruit, cupcakes and cookies. We finally tried to retire around 10 or 11pm but the kids took awhile to settle down and the other groups around us were noisy as well. Several people were heard talking fairly late into the evening – maybe 1am. Around 2am we woke again for a ‘pitstop’ and to zip up the flaps on the kids’ tents. We had eight tents this time for our group of 20 and three were kids only tents. A couple hours later the wind was blowing and we were awake again! At 5am the earliest birds started chirping and by 6am the kids were awake! Argh... We were all tired that night! For breakfast we had left over pork chops with our cup noodles as well as cereal, bread, fruit, hot chocolate and coffee. After that we took down camp just before it started raining but we got wet carrying the equipment back to the storeroom. It was only a morning shower though and by our 10am kayaking time it stopped raining but it was breezy on shore wind so it was tough to get out. Maggie and Kathryn were blown over in their two person kayak, but the staff in their motor boat were quick to help right them. (Maggie said she was leaning over at the time the gust hit them.) Kathryn was done after that and a couple people were too scared to go out after that incident even though the wind was letting up... Maggie was still raring to go and was out there the longest with various partners during the two hours we had the kayaks. Paul and I went out for a bit and Alex went with me once. About 13 of our group went out so we had to keep coming back to switch. Half past 12 was time to catch the bus back to town and we hit Pepperoni’s for pizza again which cost more than the whole camping trip! I believe we all enjoyed ourselves even though we were a bit tired from lack of sleep. The next day I took the kids to Ocean Park to meet up with other school friends and then one of Maggie’s friends slept over that night. May 1st was the reopening day of our pool with free swimming so we all jumped in for a bit. Whew – four days went by in a hurry! The rest of the school year will as well – we finish June 1st and there are lots of performances, parties and field trips on the calendar.

From Phuket Click here for more photos

We went on a long weekend trip to Phuket over Easter with another family whose daughter is the same age as Maggie. This was the first time our families travelled together and the first trip for Becky and the kids to Thailand. We stayed at the Sheraton Grande at Laguna Beach (a group of 5 resorts as well as holiday club units and individually owned townhouses). The beach is at least a couple of kilometers long and is really named Bang Tao, just the resort complex is called Laguna Beach.



Both Alex and Maggie got too much sun but had a great time in the pool in the mornings and playing at the beach in the afternoons. We ate the included breakfast buffet at the resort, lunch at the poolside restaurant, 2 dinners on the beach and 2 at the resort. The Dads played a round of golf and nearly succumbed to heat exhaustion while the Moms brought the kids to a pool with a waterslide and restaurant alongside the 17th to wave as they went past. Paul played a pretty good round considering the heat - the caddy asked him if he was a 3 handicapper! After the round the men joined us for a bite and a dip before heading back to our resort for rest - Paul watched F1 (Malaysia). He actually spent a bit of time watching television in the middle of the night since it was the Masters weekend (golf).



Maggie and Alicia got their hair braided and also got to ride an elephant and a horse, but Alex wasn't interested - he's wary of animals. The adults all had massages near the beach in a cool, covered area where you could feel the breeze on your skin. One hour for USD15 including tip! Should have gone more than once... I guess we'll have to plan a return trip then!





Click here for more videos

The kids took part in a gymnastics competition last weekend. It was a good experience and they both received medals of participation. Photos on Picasa, click the links...

From gym comp 2007

This weekend has been busy as well. Maggie was asked to represent the students at the ICS NSB Topping Ceremony. The New School Building superstructure is finished and now to complete all the details!

From ICS NSB

We went to Ethan's 7th birthday party and the kids all made pizza.

From Ethan's pizza...

Then we went to a friend's house on Lantau for BBQ dinner - the first time in a blue taxi. Blue for Lantau, green for New Territories and red for Kowloon and HKG.

Happy Chinese New Year! We had our usual hot pot dinner for new year's eve and watched the story of how the Chinese zodiac animals came to be in the order they are...

Alex didn't really want to take a photo after school hence the unbuttoned casual look.
Maggie knitted the red scarf in the photo - she gets better with each project.

Click on the piggy banks for a couple other photos.

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Enjoyed our time at Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido. Pkg included breakfast and dinner and we had noodles every day for lunch. We also had a lot of yummy soft serve cones. We bought a four day pass, but actually skied about 3 days since the first day was only the afternoon and one day cut short due to rain - kids went to the pool for that afternoon.


Time for a little break and snack. Hot chocolate, cold Coca Cola and a warm pork bun... Hits the spot!

Didn't take nearly as many photos as last year and only a couple videos on the aim and shoot cam since I didn't carry the video cam with me. The kids did great though - we hit a couple of intermediate runs and some were fairly long.




One of the evenings we had BBQ for dinner and they gave us bibs to wear protect our clothes from splatters.


We stayed for one last night in Sapporo before departing Hokkaido back home. We hit the malls and had a nice dinner with the other two families in our group. Last year there were five families that went to the ski resort and another that joined the city tour. Is this turning into an annual trip?

Uploaded a couple videos to You Tube to try it out...




Snowplowing (aka 'big pizza') to a stop



Can't catch up to Maggie here...



We had one rainy morning where we skiied until soaked, then hit the wavepool, waterslide and onsen; staying soaked the rest of the day!

A belated Christmas present from Uncle James was a hit! It was a plug'n'play minigolf video game. Great entertainment for the whole family...


But not as good as the real thing since Paul was off to the range after a round to try out his new club. (He was coerced into getting a new one after a couple of rounds in unusually freezing SoCal weather with Jake).




Frustration with the plug'n'play minigolf game...



Does overswinging work?

Mom and Dad visit and ski trip

It has been a busy last couple of months so here's the big update! My parents came for their first ever visit from mid-Nov to mid-Dec photos here. Every weekend was booked and during the week we did some touristy things (Stanley, Sai Kung, the Peak) 

and went out to eat and shop at markets, local stores and malls as well as the normal kids' after school activities (including Thurs evening gymnastics and dinner, too). I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff we did, but here are some highlights... Over U.S. Thanksgiving weekend we went into China and drove around the whole Pearl River Delta from Shenzhen to Zhuhai. We went to where my father's ancestors are from - Tai Shan. 

We located the village and a cousin brought us to his grandfather's burial site. 

That is near where my mother's ancestors are from - Jiang Men, but we didn't go look for any relations there... On the way back to HK we went to the Splendid China attraction - famous sites in miniature from all over China. 

We found my father's grandmother's burial site in a local cemetery. On my mother's side, we got together with an uncle who lives in HK and ate at a restaurant he is part owner of for dim sum and dinner. That's all of the 'family' business we did. We went to Macau one Sunday and Paul took my folks through Sands while I took the kids around a new area called Fisherman's Wharf. After, we went to St Paul's ruins and a nearby fort. We walked through Leal Senado and ate at the Wynn before catching the ferry back. Long day! Maggie had her tap dance performance and school Christmas performance the same weekend and we went to Taipei together for our last weekend together before they returned home. Time flew by and then Christmas was fast approaching. School let out on the 22nd, had an all day fete the 23rd with lunch and gift exchange for some of Alex's friends and some families over for hotpot dinner. 24th for last minute shopping and packing and Christmas day we flew to Japan for the week to go skiing. 

We got back new year's eve and managed to stay awake to welcome 2007. Spent all this week recovering - washing clothes, etc and Maggie's friend came over for a sleepover and visited the whole next day. Christmas vacation almost over for the kids and then Chinese New Year right around the corner! Click icon to see more ski photos on