A few random long weekend photos

We've had an up and down weekend - Raspy McCoughypants had a tough Saturday, but seems to have shaken off the worst of his chest gloop. He's in pretty awesome spirits, and as I type this he's fast asleep (touch wood - last night he screamed from 10pm to 11pm). He's had a full on weekend so far, with brunch at the Press Room on Saturday morning and then Sam B's birthday party today. Tomorrow's junk trip has been cancelled, but seeing as this weekend is "Grave Sweeping" weekend, we'll still try and get out somewhere (our street is next to the cemetery and looks like Disneyland on Grave Sweeping days. I've got some random photos - I've got a pile more (especially of Sarah K and Bunky yesterday), but here are the ones I've had a pick through so far:

A sight we need to get used to - Bunky wandering the lounge and dining floor area.

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George and Rachel observing pass-the-parcel at Sam's party

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The boys asleep in the spare room.  Seriously, I don't know how Ben sleeps like that.

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The little man just before his bath tonight

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Bunky with his Aunty Kirstie this morning

Just before Aunty Kirstie took off back to Singapore after a whirlwind trip:

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Pokfulam Market Day

We took the little man down to the monthly market, where he got to sit in the sun and hang with his mate Sam.  Photos below are of Bunky and a few friends who were also there:

Sam with Cam and Carolin

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Bunky with his favourite wooden mouse

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Carolin (with blurry Cam in the foreground on the right)

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Nick with little Gus in "rugby ball" position

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Bunky and mummy (of course)

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Baby group [Password = name of Keane family chocolate labrador]

Emma and Mark asked me to take a few photos for their baby group, which is shortly disbanding due to the repatriation of some of its members.  They are a fantastic bunch of really friendly people, and it was great fun - although a little exhausting (fourteen adults and fourteen children!) I've popped a few of the photos from the afternoon below (with some rough edits - I need to sit down for a few hours and do proper edits on all of them):

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Dim sum, birthdays, quiet time

A hectic weekend for the little man, not helped by us thinking that today's birthday party was yesterday.  On Saturday we got as far as about 30m from the birthday boy's driveway before we realised that we were a day early.  Ah well, at least George got a swim out of it. This morning started with dim sum with the McBride clan in Wan Chai. The always reliable and extremely child-friendly Renaissance Harbourview:

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Which was followed by a nap and then a visit to little Riley's house for his first birthday celebration, just around the corner from where we live.  That's the birthday boy Riley on the left and George's playmate Sam H on the right:

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And finally a little bit of quiet time for Bunky with his Mummy. Clearly, Daddy is quite hilarious:

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It's a short week this week - Thursday is China's Labour Day.  We'll just enjoy the long weekend by chilling with the little man (although I'll probably need to head into work on Friday for at least some of the day).

The Challis Family are very good looking

Weekend playtime

George's buddy Hugo popped in yesterday for a playdate and a swim, good times for all. I don't think there was a great deal of interaction going on, but they stared at each other a bit, and appeared to be happy with a spot of toy sharing. Here's George earlier in the day as he was watching the Canterbury v Otago game:

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And here's one of his little mate Hugo (who is a month or two older than George):

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As the playdate toddled along, the All Blacks were busy showing us that it wasn't just the Black Caps who couldn't catch a ball.  The lineouts - which I swear have sucked since 2000 - were abysmal, we dropped the ball in open play more times than I care to remember, and with almost 20 minutes to go and 10 points down, we chose to go for a try (instead of an easy penalty which would have put us within one score of the Boks).

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The simple way to fix the lineout problem would be to tell the lineout chaps that their match fee is paid according to the following formula:

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Match fee = (Number of own line outs won ÷ Number of own lineouts taken) x Normal Match fee

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So, if they take five lineouts in a game and lose three of them, then they would get 40% of their usual match fee. I suspect the stats would get much better if this was the case.

Still, traitorous beggar that I am, my emotional hedge came through - the Boks were paying $2.65 for the win, so my TAB account balance is looking ok this week.

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Finally, after coming to their collective senses and electing a President who can actually pronounce the word 'nuclear' (it's not "NOO-KEY-LURR", dude), a large section of sub-par-IQ Americans are panicking about the Nazi / Socialist / Muslim / Marxist / Baby killing / Grandma killing president in charge and have lost their collective minds.  These from the "We're not really sure what we're protesting" Protests in Washington DC yesterday:

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And my favourite one:

Saturday morning at the Stoep, Saturday evening at the bar

The Binnington Clan very kindly invited us along to join them for a day at Mui Wo - we had a bit of a play in the ocean and then had a great early lunch at the Stoep Restaurant (a South African barbeque place). Here are a few photos of the day - firstly, the locals call a spade a spade. And a sick bag a Vomit Bag: .

And a few of big Sam and little Eva:

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...as well as one of Rachel and Bunky:

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And tonight I went out to watch the rugby at a pub in Wan Chai, and took this on of my fellow rugby watchers (they had to go outside for their nicotine fix, thanks to the new anti-smoking laws):

Monday morning photos

Not much from yesterday - here's one from this morning, George playing with very special favourite cardboard tube:

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And one from last night - Angelo was in town, so we headed out with the cameras and took some photos in town:

Ash and Zoe picked a great morning to be in Hong Kong

I suspect they've just touched down at HKIA, so we'll probably see them in an hour or so.  It's stunning outside:

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Here's a bit of Bunky from last night: