Monday 16 April 2012

Countdown to arrival



Only 5 sleeps until Granary and Grandpa get here! There has been a stunning thunderstorm this evening, so don't forget to pack your wellies.

So what do you do on your fourth visit to Honkers in as many years? Leave! we'll be heading to Macau for the day to eat Fernando's roast chicken and drink sangria.

At the other end of the scale, we'll do the hyper-touristy rickshaw bus. I'm looking forward to the 540 degree panoramic view. WTF?

Joshy-san


Monday 2 April 2012

Swimming




We've taken the boys to the SCAA quite a few times in the last couple of weeks, in order to get them used to the pool again before we go on holiday. They're doing really well. The SCAA is ok, but it's not exactly stylish. Or clean. Or well-kept. Actually, the pool itself is clean, but the changing rooms have seen better days. Thank God we live so close and can come home for a shower! It's a good budget option, just $22 a time for adults and $10 for kids. You have to join the SCAA, but I think that's only $100 a year.

It reminds me a bit of the Stour Centre, down to the little details like everyone wearing swimming caps....


I am sitting at home, after working this morning. The boys are in bed. It's quite an overcast, grey sort of day, but it was just significantly brightened when a gorgeous black and orange butterfly landed on the corrugated iron awning under our bedroom window. I was too slow to catch a picture, but I think it's a Common Lascar.


Poisson d'avril


Did you April Fool? no, nor did we.

I remember the good old days when Uncle Hairy and I used to get up early to prepare such treasures as covering the loo seat with clingfilm, and swapping the contents of the cereal boxes. So when Daddy came to prepare his speciality Coco Pops and custard combo, he'd tip the Coco Pops box, and out would come cornflakes. Hilarious. Good times.

Not much has happened of late. The boys have been learning lots more words, including zoom, door, moon, pull, cop cop (helicopter), bowl, toes, toast (quite similar those two), elbow, knee, dog, heart, tick tock....so while they may not tick off the list of 25 words every two year old should know*, they've got their own plan for progress towards communication.

I've been thinking more lately about our place here. I have suddenly experienced a hankering for more local food. Back in the Wan Chai days, we used to go out for dinner every night to a random eatery on Jaffe or Lockhart Road. Sometimes it was successful, sometimes not. Sometimes we didn't really know what we were ordering, but most of the restaurants had English menus, so it didn't happen every day.

Recently we have got into a habit of eating Western food, or Westernized Chinese. Which is bad, not to mention over-priced. So I am taking the bull by the horns and picking out places to eat whose names I can't read. We went to Mak's Noodles on Leighton Road the other day; apparently it's in the HK & Macau Michelin guide, but I don't know why. Seemed pretty mediocre to me. But it did remind me of how awesome oyster sauce is.


* I was going to add a link to this article, but when I googled it the first result was on HollywoodLife.com. Which makes me think perhaps it's not based on a highly respected scientific analysis.