1 January 2008 ends

SPACERSPACERSPACER It was a pretty lazy day in Chez Narly today - I got bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast and then after some messing around we ended up having lunch at the Press Room on Hollywood Road with Mark and Boo (who live downstairs - Mark works with Rachel).  Had a good feed and subsequently am replacing dinner with a mini Toblerone (it's healthy because I say so).  Didn't achieve a lot really, although go this photo on the street. I don't like the edits - might try and fix it later.  It was a guy and his wife roasting and chestnuts and selling them in Sheung Wan.  Pretty cool:

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Oh - we've booked flights for NZ. M&E we're leaving on 21 March and arriving in Auckland on 22nd - so your wedding had better be on the 28th...  We're there until the end of Easter weekend, and will hit Wellington for a bit in the middle somewhere.

Nothing left to report - but had to share this great "spot the differenct picture". Can you tell what the University of Wisconsin belatedly added to the cover of their undergraduate application form in 2001/2?

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  [Edit - stupid website clock is set to US time... I'll fix it later] It's still a bit weird waking up to a cold New Year's Day, after spending most of them in a New Zealand summer. I've only ever had one white Christmas, and that was in Canada when I was living there in 1996/7. Shyte that was colllld. We had a lovely night at Paul and Leslie's last night - they put on some great food and we saw a load of their friends who we met at their Australia Day BBQ earlier in the year.  We were the only childless ones there, so got lots of good advice about babymaking in Hong Kong (including quite a handy warning from one guy who got hit with a HK$350,000 bill after his new son spent 10 days in intensive care - must check our insurance terms and conditions).

Lazy morning here - I woke up early, but couldn' force myself to leave the bed as Poppycat was snuggled up next to me under the blanket.  Rachel just made us bacon, eggs and hash browns, and we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves.  Called and texted everyone we wanted to, and now we're listening to a NZ radio station (thanks to the clever old internet and Wifi iPod magic).

Rachel has recalculated her due date and seems to think it has slid forward by a few days - now 16 January.  Who knows when the little mite will turn up.

A few photos of the boys that I took this morning (I only took them so that I could upload something):

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And before I shoot off, Happy Birthday to Tim Ma(n)hood who turned 33 yesterday.  Here's an old photo to revive some bad memories Timbo (from Taupo golf weekend in 2006 - that was the year where I managed to have a sleep between dinner and dessert):

random sunday night facts

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1) Rachel doesn't have to go to work again until July

2) I have to go to work in the morning

3) Cracker (aka evilspawnofnarly) now weighs 6 pounds (just over 2 kilos)

4) Cracker (aka evilspawnofnarly) is due to grace us with his/her presence in 3 weeks

5) Although we don't actually know it, I firmly believe - as does 99% of the HK population that has seen Rachel - that Cracker is a boy

6) There is absolutely no scientific basis for 5)

7) The names are pretty much sorted.

That's all really - I'm about to go to bed, so I leave you with a photo of little Freddie Cary sleeping peacefully under the NZ wool blanket that Uncle Narly and Aunty Rachel sent him (thanks to Daddy Cary for sending us the photo!)

A few more photos from today and last night

Nothing to report - the Challis clan have successfully departed and as I type this, they should be sitting on a plane waiting to take off.  We had a lovely dinner at the Peak Lookout Restaurant last night - just the grownups - and this morning the clan came upstairs for coffee, banana, biscuits and a bit of TV action. Now it's just the four of us again (I include the cats in my calculations).  Rachel is lying on the couch reading, and I'm just sorting through some photos from the last few days. Nothing planned for the next few days, although we have a few baby things to purchase.

I had a play with the baby monitor yesterday, and it appears that the only thing it can't do is make my coffee in the morning. There is this super weird 'tic' feature on it that makes a little 'tic' whenever the movement sensor goes off - the same movement sensor that screams like a banshee if it detects no movement for 10 seconds.  Hell it's loud.

Right - I'll leave you with some pictures.  First two are of course Robin and Kirstie at the restaurant last night, and the last three are Arabella and Paddy in various positions while watching cartoons on tv this morning.  I love the huggy one - Paddy is transfixed with some stoner running about in a colourful costume, while all Bella wants to do is give her big brother a hug.  Sweet...

getting closer to christmas

...and that deserves christmas cat photos, and a random photo of a cool coloured cup (from FUEL espresso, here in HK). but before that, big news. just kidding - nothing really going on at the moment.  challis clan arrives on saturday night and before that we have a whole lot of nothing going on. shopping is almost done and rachel is down to 5 days of work before her extended "vacation".  we got woken up by baby crying in the apartment upstairs at 6am this morning. good practice i suppose...

as i type this, rachel is lying on the couch with poppycat purring away (pop is doing the purring, not rachel), and ben is skulking around the room, looking for attention.

right, those photos i was talking about:

ben's remarkable aim

our apartment has about 1800 square foot of space we have three main bedrooms, a "half" bedroom and bathroom out the back, and two main bathrooms.

the lounge is large and joins onto the dining room.

for two cats, it's practically a luxury penthouse - there is sooo much space for them to run around in and play.

so, when ben decided that after breakfast he needed a little bit of gut purging, where in this vast expanse of apartment did he choose to vomit?

in rachel's handbag.

i love that cat so much.

the belcher

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i currently live in a culture where blowing one's nose is considered to be gross - but chewing loudly, chewing with your mouth open, sniffing 40 times in 2 minutes and burping are absolutely fine.

i of course struggle with this weirdness, but am particularly struggling someone burping outside my door at work.

every three minutes for the last week or so, this colleague of mine (let's called her belchy wang) lets out a loud and proud burp.  no apparent reason, she just does it. ALL DAY LONG. she doesn't even look vaguely embarrassed. just sits at her desk and burps. and burps. and burps.

i am at a loss as to what to do.  my current strategy is to close my door, gently rock myself to sleep in fetal position, whilst praying that belchy wang's little spasms will soon come to a halt. i am not a violent person, but i'd consider throwing furniture at her if it stopped the burping.

EDIT: in the time it took to type this, she burped three more times.  i kid you not.

brrrrrrrrrrrrr

the temperature dipped below 20 degress celsius today, and the wind has picked up to around 8km/h, so i fully expect the local folks to be wrapped up in layer upon layer of wool, down clothing, fluffy pom-pom hats and - strangely - shorts accompanied by long velvet boots with all manner of dangly things wobbling off them. i also predict that the Hello Kitty store will completely sell out of their nose-warmers by the end of the day.

a few photos from saturday in the sun at discovery bay

today we're on a mission to go and get me some new sneakers (i'm going for some chucks this winter) and we have a few things to get from stanley market - it's a nice day, so it should be ok out there. had a great day yesterday in the sun at discovery bay. saw some of lisa's awesome jewellery, and then hung with the DB clan (sue, steve, calvin, rachel, helen and pete) and their respective sproglings.  here are some photos from the afternoon / evening of the little people (hermione, kiri, che, sue & che, sue & hermione):