Happy Holidays from Hong Kong - Tsim Sha Tsui in front of Ocean Terminal

Maggie and her new toy!

Another weekend... Saturday morning we went to put our handprints in a clay tile that will be used on one of the outside walls of our new school building. There was a buzz of excitement as people were trying to figure out the best way to put their handprints on the tiles. This has been a pretty good fundraiser for our new school with over two million HKD raised, but we're still trying to raise another 80 million to cover the bank loan and then we'll be able to move into the school debt free! The total cost of the new school is around 300 million. Elementary will move first, actually in less than a month - that's the left wing. The two gyms, chapel, play area and cafeteria are in the middle with the right wing being Secondary. There will also be some apartments on the top floor for some of the teachers. Maggie won't move until December and she'll start the new year in a new building.





After that, Maggie went to tap class, then Ocean Park with some of her friends while Paul went to the office and then Alex and I met him for lunch, grocery shopping and back home where we had our first hotpot dinner of the season, even though it's not quite cold enough out - we had the air con on...

Sunday morning we got to Skype with cousin Catie - ah, the wonders of technology.

Happy 7th birthday Alex! Had some friends over for a little party at the end of August - so I'm a month late with this post, sorry! The kids had fun just hanging out together, playing DS, watching the TV, etc.

Hey, I found out there's a moniker for that convenient-style of camping, i.e. no need to lug your tent and sleeping bags, that I've done with the kids San Mateo County, CA at Costanoa. It's called "glamping" as in "glamorous camping." Just run a search and you'll find plenty of results. We didn't get to go this summer, but there's a post from July here on this very blog. This photo is from our first trip there - look how little Alex was!



Here's a link to a story - but I don't think we'll be taking $10k a week trips any time soon?!?!

Another way to jump in the pool. Couldn't get Maggie's video to upload, so there's photos, but here's a video of Alex.

Sorry for the late update on summer...

Click this sentence for photos from our 5-day bus tour around Taiwan.

Day 1: Leave Taipei for a drive around most of Sun Moon Lake, stopping at scenic spots, an aboriginal village where we had lemon ai-yu (a jelly extracted from a fig) and temples along the way and arriving for dinner at Ali Mountain, a cool 14 degrees (from close to 30), for the night.

Day 2: Rise at 4am to take a train up to watch the sunrise. I thought it would be pleasant like Haleakala (Maui) a couple years ago on the last family vacation but nope, there was a guy with a megaphone yakking away and vendors selling warm food and drinks and lots of people jockeying for a good photos. After that we rode the train back down to hotel area and walk through an old growth forest after breakfast. Lots of neat tree trunks amidst some newer trees. Back on the bus toward Kenting where we stopped at a nice aquarium with water fountains to jump in (if we were only prepared) before checking into our hotel around the corner from the beach, right on the main drag where we went for dinner and dessert (more ai-yu and ice cream) and browsing all the stands selling stuff.

Day 3: Darn, no time to go to the beach in the morning... it was back on the bus again! We stopped at a park enclosing the lighthouse at the southern tip of Taiwan and walked up and around the grounds stopping for refreshments before walking back down – the sun was fierce! Then it was up and over windy mountain roads to the Pacific Coast and ocean views all the way up to Tai Dong where we stopped at a historical museum before the hotel. This place was great because of the hotsprings where we went after dinner – they had a theraputic pool with areas of jets at different heights to target sore muscles and a regular pool with three areas of varying temperatures. We slept well that night!

Day 4: On the way to Hualien, we stopped at a dairy farm and had ice cream, walked around the grounds, Catie rode a horse, Maggie and Alex jumped into a hamster ball nearly taking out Paul who was snapping photos. We also stopped at an old sugar factory for more ice cream and a quick bite. We stayed in a city hotel that night and walked around the area looking for dinner. After, Helen and James went off to watch Transformers since it was released earlier than in the states.

Day 5: Drove to Taroko Gorge and drove as far as we were allowed before turning back. Walked a few kilometers through caves carved by the river. Neat! Then it was our last long drive back to Taipei. Went out to dinner and drinks and local night market for yet another ai-yu.

The next day we decided we didn’t get enough of Taiwan’s snacks to eat so we took a quick train trip to Keelung Temple Market. We also had beef stew noodles a couple more times before it was off to the states for the rest of our summer vacation.

Summer has passed and the kids have survived their first week of school. We enjoyed our vacation in Taiwan (9 days), Toronto (5 days) and California the rest of the time.

I just put up the Canada photos so here's a link.

Toronto summer 2007

One day we went to downtown Toronto to walk around and saw the lake (Ontario). Another day we drove down to Niagra Falls and stopped at wineries and fruit stands and had a picnic at a park with a merry-go-round for the kids enroute. We just hung out together and enjoyed the company. I heard the rest of the gang had much more exciting adventures in Montreal so maybe next time I will head north.





It was great to see everyone in, of all places, North America, when SE Asia is much closer and it was also wonderful to have our mom's night out thanks to Sandy's bro-in-law. The kids got along fairly well and everyone has grown up so much!



Will post more on vacation later.

Maggie graduated from Elementary School but they didn't have much of a ceremony. It was the last day of school - the 5th graders sang for us and reminisced about life as an elementary student. There were lots of award certificates handed out as well as diplomas. They called the kids names so fast during graduation it was hard to get a photo!


Alex in the crowd. When we move to our new school, we will have a proper auditorium - a performing arts centre actually. No more sitting on the floor!

The big event was the end of the year concert when all the 5th graders sang and played their band instruments for us as well as performances from the other ensemble groups at school. We were able to use another school's auditorium since our new school is not finished yet.

Maggie's class also had their own graduation dinner. They rented a hotel function area with a stage set up and had a buffet dinner. It was great entertainment for us as the kids performed skits, sang, etc for their families.

Farewell lunch... Sandy, Michael, Kathryn and Matthew are leaving us for a new life in Singapore. Whew - it will be hot there! We've known each other since the Alex and their daughter and Wai Yee's kids were in playgroup together. It's only Wai Yee and me left from our cookie exchange group now... We went to Amaroni's for Italian family style eating - lots of mangiare!

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