Art in TST and Sunday in Hollywood Road Park

An origami tiger

Making lucky oranges for CNY

Where's kowloon?!

Pollution in Hong Kong today is as bad as Beijing's.

It is automatic rinse apparatus, don't touch

Half term day one

A lovely day of playing, Vic park playground, peak tram, shake it off, running through sprinklers and lots and lots of giggles.

Cath's birthday party

Some random photos that never made it onto the blog

Josh & Sebastian pumpkin carving

Sebastian and the Tiger class mascot

Josh at the Hillside International Kindergarten Sports Day

Sports Day at HKFC

Everyone got a medal

Josh's Hallowe'en costume

Felix as a turtle

Weekend lunch at the Yacht Club

Half-term trip to Ocean Park

One weekend in January

25th January 2015

Had a lovely time this weekend, with friends old and new. On Friday evening Ross and I took Josh, Felix and Sebastian to Pizza Express, which is one of their favourite treats.

Josh & Felix went to tennis with Coach Cliff and Coach Glen on Saturday morning, then I took Josh to see Dr Li. It was our last appointment to follow up on Josh's finger operation. Looks like the bone still hasn't knitted together, and almost certainly never will. Then we came home and Sophie and Adrian came over with Juliette so the kids could practice their cycling together. Ross took the pedals and stabilisers off Josh's bike, in an attempt to get him to practise balancing. We had a BBQ together, the kids whizzed about on their bikes, and then played with bubbles on the roof.

In the evening we went over to a neighbour's house for Burn's Supper, complete with Yorkshire Haggis (roasted in kids' animal shaped silicon moulds!), neaps, tatties, whisky, tablet, cranach and poetry recitals. We had a fabulous evening, somehow 5 hours flew by and suddenly it was time to go home!

This morning we headed to Pret for breakfast, then off to Ngong Ping by MTR. The boys were keen to go on the cable cars again, so we did that, walked up to the Big Buddha, then got a taxi to Tai O. Had lunch at Espace Elastique, and also some yummy egg waffles from the guy on Kat Hing Street. Then a walk out to the Tai O Hotel past the stinky but fascinating shrimp paste factory, bus back to Mui Wo and ferry back to Central.

Occupy Central

Trying to catch up on all the news now, as Ross is working late. It makes me so sad to see the violence between different factions in Hong Kong. The students' and occupiers' peaceful protests have made me so proud to be part of HK, and yet now we see the other side of society. The pro-Beijing groups (who seem to be mostly triads) have not justified their support of Beijing and the status quo. Taxi drivers and small business owners are understandably pissed off because their income has been severely affected, but there's a whole bunch of people who are not articulate enough to express why they are acting like they are. It seems like the Gov't is acting in cahoots with these thugs, removing the protesters' barricades just in time for the triads to turn up and create a frightening, violent atmosphere. 

Hong Wrong has some great content about what, why, when

Pepper spray (but not tear gas) was used again last night, as the police tried to clear one protest area. The occupiers responded by moving their barricades elsewhere, and now they are reinforcing with bamboo and concrete. Footage has emerged today of policemen beating a protester who was arrested, which is unbelievable. When every move in this protest is recorded on a thousand smart phones, what kind of idiotic policeman beats the shit out of someone just metres from protesters? Perhaps a policeman who has no fear of repercussions because he has the tacit approval of his superiors...at least that's my assumption. 

I think a lot of people are so outraged by the government's, police's and other parties' treatment of the protesters that that has become almost as big an issue as the call for true democracy. I hadn't realised until recently that there are precedents, sort of, for this type of action having an effect. In 2003 the government (obviously prompted by Beijing) tried to pass Article 23, an anti-sedition law. Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest, and as a result the proposal was shelved indefinitely, and the Chief Executive at the time (Tung Chee Wah) resigned. And in 2012 they tried to pass some changes to the curriculum that would have painted a very rosy (fictional) picture of how awesome the Central Government in Beijing was. That law was defeated when gov't buildings were occupied by Scholarism, a student movement founded by Joshua Wong, who was, I think, 14 years old at the time. 

So what will happen now? The talks between Occupy protesters and the government - Carrie Lam - were cancelled at the last minute because Carrie claimed that her trust had been shaken because the students proposed to call more people to protest if their demands weren't met. And that was enough to cause her to cancel talks?! More likely she has no wiggle room and she simply does not know what to say. Beijing are not budging on this, but they are delivering their message through the HK gov't, only the gov't doesn't have the balls to either deal with the protesters, or challenge Beijing. 

Sarah protest interview: http://youtu.be/6PTroJBgznA

Balut

Balut - not my cup of tea. It's a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. Yes, you read that right. It's something of a delicacy in the Philippines, and Vergie's friend brought her back some from her last trip to the PI. 

Here are some photos. I must admit that just the thought of having the thing in my kitchen made my insides feel all funny, but opening the bin to see an aborted chick in there....even minginger. Here are some photos.

The yolk after the chick has been removed

See the head? actually, don't look

Duck foetus

The shell

Hong Kong 7s Fancy Dress Street Rugby HD

Official HSBC Hong Kong 7s #BRINGYOURGAME

Hong Kong 7s_ The Mint