All I want for Christmas

The joys of children's touch rugby.
Missing teeth.
Arthur decided it was time to pull out his front tooth while playing touch rugby.
I took the tooth over to the coach and asked him to explain how his supervision of our eldest child had failed to stop the other child kicking Arthur in the face and knocking out his front tooth.
Poor fellah, he nearly fainted with fear.
Never realised I could be so convincing.
Perhaps I should sign up for acting?   Then again perhaps not.

Cycling

It seems the cycling is eventually paying off. Since August I have shed 3 stones in weight, pedalled over 1350 kms of which the equivalent of 3500m upwards. (Everest is 8848m high and base camp is at 4910m so I have a way to go yet). I have apparently burnt over 40,000 calories and spent 58 hours in doing so. Let's see if I can keep it up and how long it will take me to get to the equivalent of the roof of the world. Any betting people out there?   Follow my progress at the blog site of the South Lantau Cycling Team.

Lantau Buffalos - Mini Rugby

Their first training day with the new club strip.

Global warming – I Don’t Think So!

Last time I looked the temperature was down to 10 degrees.   This is the sub tropics not Manchester.   I firmly blame China for this as last week they claimed they had deliberately caused snow to fall on Beijing by firing some sort of chemicals into the clouds.  Snow in Beijing

“Weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow” Cloudy and cold overnight. The minimum temperature will be about 12 degrees in the urban areas, and 2 to 3 degrees lower over the New Territories.

Just what I wanted to hear.   Ah well, it is only supposed to last a few more days and then we are back to the warmth.

Mini Rugby - Lantau Island Style

This weekend was the first training session ever of the Lantau Buffalos Mini Rugby Club. An official HKRFU club and one of the few in Hong Kong that can actually boast having its own playing field! Well to be fair, the field is a football pitch that had fallen into disuse and thanks to the tremendous efforts of some the grass was cut back to make it useable once more. (you can see the height it had grown too to the sides of the pitch!) Quite surprisingly some 35 children were signed up, boys and girls and a real mix of languages too. Any referee who tries to sort out this lot out will need to be pretty well educated. Despite several pitch invasions and a sit in by some sponsors, see pictures that follow, it was a great start.

Halloween - Matthew's Pirate adventure

When you are four, the great thing about being a younger brother is you seem to get loads of new clothes to wear. When you are 21 however, you may regret letting your dad take a photo of you in them though!

Cycling

Since 09 August I have been making a concerted effort to do some exercise and after dusting off my push bike, giving it a bit of an oil and a service I have suddenly become quite fond of cycling.

In May this year I had really piled on the pounds and now the efforts of the cycling and Nuch's refusal to feed me to bursting point, the effects are showing through. So far 33 pounds of flab have been shed and I have pedaled myself over nearly 1000 kms.

My first outing was a real shocker. After 45 minutes I was floored, I had used up all my gears and was done in. I could hardly turn the pedals.

Luckily, things are steadily improving. I have managed to cycle up to Pak Kung Au (the top of the pass between Cheung Sha and Tung Chung (although not without stopping) and I am seeing my averages times climbing and my heart rate descending. All good signs.

Spiders from Mars

This little fellow was sitting in our water jug in the kitchen this afternoon. An odd spider as it only had 5 legs. It was like that when we found it honestly!

The picture's a little blurred as it was taken using an old mobile phone camera. The spider is in the bottom of a 1 litre measuring jug.

Photo Update, Man Kok Tsui

Whats a normal day for us?

0830 Take kids to school by bicycle

0845 Collect two door frames from wood shop

0900 Collect 21 bags of cement from builders yard -about 1100 kgs in all

0915 Load all onto a very wobbly sampan then set off in very windy and rough seas

0930 Clear up dog sick from sampan (dog sea sick)

0931 Arrive at pier and unload all the stuff at the pier and cart across the beach to the house

1100 Collect 3 times the amount of cement in beach sand and cart to house by bucket loads

1400 Walk back to Mui Wo and collect bicycles

1500 Collect kids from school

1600 Start work in office answering UK emails

Is it worth it? We reckon it is. It's still a work in progress and it's not everyone's cup of tea. We are well aware of that fact but we really enjoy the place and its as unlike Hong Kong as you care to imagine. No cars, no buses, no noise, no people, no shops, no cinemas, no hassle.

Water is free, vegetables and fruit are grown free, (so far lemon grass, ginger, limes, papaya, aubergine, chilli, Thai basil, etc.)

We have a phone line, we have electricity, we have govt water if we connect to it, we have sewage, the bins are emptied weekly and the beach is cleaned weekly etc. etc.

During the week you can expect to have two or three hikers walk past the house (most of whom are lost) and of a weekend you may get a couple more on mountain bikes.

Post is left in Mui Wo, at one of many letter boxes nailed to a tree at the start of the footpath across the headland.

These photos are not in the best order but you can start to see the house taking shape at last.

Creepy Crawlies

Check out this creature. A truly wriggly and rather angry centipede. Not sure how long it is but it was as long as the water bottle we tricked it into crawling inside. One bite from this sucker and you would have a very very sore and painful weekend. Its not obvious on the video clip but we had made some holes in the bottle so it could actually breathe. What became of it? Ah well that's another tale, it was handed over to a rather eager recipient who had every intention of drowning it in brandy and leaving it in the brandy bottle to help enhance the taste!!!! well rather them than me, that's all I can say.

The renovations update

Well cash is tight - what's new? But we are plodding on.

The back walls of the house, kitchen and bathroom are now cleared back to their original width and the accumulation of dirt and rubble that had been pressing against them has been cleared away. A massive, manual effort as we had no access for diggers or excavators. We estimate about 3 feet by 3 feet by 80 feet of soil and back fill was cleared away. Whats that in volume about 480 square feet, wow nearly the same volume as a local flat here in Hong Kong!

The slope behind the house is now cut back to a safe distance and has been reinforced with a cladding of wire netting over poured with concrete. Weep holes are also now in the wall to allow any accumulation of water to escape out rather than backing up behind the concrete (as it was before).

The back walls have been repaired and additional brickwork added to fill up the holes left behind by the excavations. The whole of the exterior of the house is now ready for final painting.

The kitchen has been designed, delivered, installed, argued over and then partially re-installed after the stirling efforts of probably the worst kitchen fitter ever to have graced Hong Kong (and I do not mean me or Nuch). A relative of Ray Charles I reckon.

The bathroom has been rebuilt and tiled and now sports a new shower and sink but we note now that the floor may need to come up and be redone as our intrepid workmen set the floor to slope away from the floor drain. Indeed it slopes in exactly the opposite direction.

We have all the shower fittings and the sink fittings ready to be plumbed in but as the water is not connected yet we are awaiting that to occur first.

Talking of water, we have re dug two wells, one for flushing water and one for boiling water. Both wells will need clearing every sixth months as the weed growth is pretty rapid. The main potable water is till being supplied from a third well much higher up the hillside and is providing clear, sweet and consistent water.

Inside the house the floors have been re levelled and all the old hollow concrete removed and replaced. Whereas before there was in internal and open gully to take away the water that was leaking in through the back walls, we have now hopefully stopped the leak by digging back the debris outside, resealing the walls and floor and also adding a polythene liner under the floor. Let's see.

The windows are in as are the front doors but due to the odd decisions of others we note that the mosquito doors are upside down, an easy fix but it does mean more concreting etc. Amazingly when you look at the house the windows appear to be crooked but in fact the windows are vertically aligned , just the walls are not!

The outside sitting areas are now fifty percent re floored, the covered area in front of the kitchen and bathroom has been completed and we will have this completed with a waist height wall to enclose it to the front. The remaining outside area will be re-floored this coming week.

Also now completed is a rejuvenation of the front parapet wall which was rather badly finished and rough. A new facade wall of bricks has been built up in front of it which will be cemented over next week ready for painting to match the house.

What's left, well the electrics and the plumbing and the internal decoration. I would say we have broken the back of it now and although we don not have the cash to complete it just yet we estimate about a month's more work is needed.

Once all that is done we can think about furniture and a house warming party.

What's new?

We have had a busy couple of months.

1. The boys are now settled back into school life after nearly three months of summer holidays (Swine flu - thank you)
2. The kitchen has been delivered and fitted at Man Kok Tsui, or at least it has been fitted by a blind man and the sighted carpenter is returning this weekend to sort out the mess.
3. We have had two more typhoons, one of which managed to deliver up possibly the largest collection of polystyrene known to have floated on the sea.
4. The dog's had a haircut.
5. We are now the proud owners of five, yes five, sit on top canoes, all of which require some DIY to make them seaworthy.
6. I have discovered the joys of cycling and am wearing a groove out on the road surface between Tung Chung and Disneyland, more on that later.
7. Nuch has enrolled in Chinese writing classes
8. Nuch has successfully trained as a medical interpreter, Thai, Laos, Cantonese and English.
9. Matthew still refuses to learn to ride a bicycle without stablisers.
10. Photos to follow

Typhoon Time

This one is obviously determined to find its way to Hong Kong. Look at the way it is lining itself up, it was happiliy heading for Vietnam and then decided to go North and then when it saw HK it turned West again.

Snakes alive - This time a Burmese Python

Amazing, utterly amazing. We must have now seen nearly all species of snakes there are to see in Hong Kong and all within 50 yards fo our front door steps.

On Friday a 2m plus python was discovered in the neighbour's chicken coop. The snake had somehow slithered in and helped itself to a plump chicken. Photos coming when extracted from the mobile phone. How do we know how long it was? Read on. ..

Sadly though, the snake's appearance was less than welcome by our neighbour and before we had a chance to intervene and rescue the snake, the neighbors stepped in and smacked the ppor creature on the back of its head with a very large and rather sharp garden hoe. Suffice to say, the blow killed the snake and the chicken had been well and truly choked.

Campaign for Mui Wo Secondary School to be re-opened

Mui Wo Secondary school closed back in 2007 or so, mostly due to a lack of local support and a lack of population. The school was apparently poorly managed with some 18 head teachers in nearly as many years. With insufficient students to fulfill the quota the school was mothballed and has remained unused ever since.

Since then there have been a few attempts by various private enterprises to obtain the use of the school and make it into a going concern. All so far have fallen on deaf ears but recently a local drug rehabilitation centre has come close to obtaining governmental permission to use the school as an educational / rehabilitation centre / boarding school.

Local opposition has been loud and at times rather unruly which naturally has attracted adverse publicity for thos opposing the proposal and conversely attracting positive publicity for the applicant. Opposition has been in some cases through fear of the centre being the catalyst to some huge local crime epidemic but mostly due to the fact that the government are seemingly looking favourably on this application yet have no plans afoot to address the local secondary educational needs. The nearest secondary schools are either on Hong Kong Island or an hour's bus journey to Tung Chung. Should the centre application succeed there is strong belief that any chances of a secondary school will be gone for ever.

Anyhow to cut a long story short, local desire to re-open the school as a school (for which it is and remains a purpose built establishment) has been spurred on by the fear that the drug centre application may succeed. In fact there is a growing local population and the need for a school is real and actual. As part of the drive to promote the forthcoming application to re-open the school the primary school students and local art classes were enlisted to draw up posters asking for the school to be re-opened and their finished art has now been hung up outside the main ferry terminal so that all passangers can see their work. Here is Arthur proudly pointing to his poster.

Aye Aye Captain

Arthur had his first taste of life on the ocean waves today. Well in actuality he only got to climb aboard a yacht that was firmly tied to a large mooring buoy but tells me it was one of the best day's of his life so far and for a lad who regularly throws up in taxis, buses and on board ferries that takes some recognising. Oddly too he suffered no ill effects what so ever and was happy to roam about below in the cabin where it was pretty stuffy considering the outside temperature and the lack of any breeze. No matter he enjoyed the experience and that is all that matters. many thanks to Kieren for the day and get well soon chum! (He will understand). Now was I supposed to leave that stop cock open or closed?

The kitchen gets ready for the delivery of the fittings

Nuch, ably assisted by site forewoman "Pa Tum" is now just about ready for the eventual installation of the cupboards, work surfaces etc. You can see what an amazing job has been done to transform the kitchen area by comparing the two photos below.

Before & after

Humpback whale in Hong Kong - And not in a restaurant!

After writing about the HK dolphin watch and the pink dolphins of Hong Kong I remembered that earlier this year a humpback whale was spotted in Hong Kong, the first time one has ever been seen here. These pictures are from the HK Standard newspaper and were taken in the Lamma Channel., one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Noone knows why the whale appeared as normally they travel in groups. This one was over thrity feet long. It was here for two or three days then simply vanished. On the Google earth map I have marked up in yellow the shipping lane in which the whale was seen. If you look up this location on Google Earth and zoom in you will see how much shipping is moving around that area. According to the Marine Department, one maor container ship enters the Lamma Channel every fifteen minutes.

Tropical Storm (Typhoon) Molave

http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc_pos.htm

It seems my amateur weather forecasting predcitions are coming true! Yesteray's tropical depression is now today's tropical storm Molave and if you follow the link above you will see it has its sights firmly towards Hong Kong and is timings its arrival for Sunday! Thanks.

Hong Kong's PINK Dolphins

How many people knew that Hong Kong had its own unique breed of pink dolphins? There are about 100 or so (that's all) of these odd looking mammals that all live in the sea off the Northern shores of Lantau island.

The video here is courtesy of the HK Dolphinwatch limited who will arrange day trips for sight seers to go and see these endangered and dwindling dolphins.

Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd.
1528A Star House, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon,
Hong Kong SAR, China PRC [Map]
Tel: (852) 2984-1414 Fax: (852) 2984-7799
Web: http://www.hkdolphinwatch.com/
e-mail: info@hkdolphinwatch.com; booking@hkdolphinwatch.com

Matthew's Birthday

On 4th July Matthew turned 4. However, as Nuch's brother was leaving to return to Thailand that same day we were unable to have a party. Instead we all had pizza. Here's Matthew smiling as ever. Despite his smiles, all was not ideal for the little thinker though. As there was no party on that day for him he annonced he would eat the pizza, open his "monster truck" present and eat any cake but have another birthday the next weekend when we were having a beach barbeque and here would be more people there. Not to be out-done, Arthur seized the opportunity to and promptly pulled out his first and admittedly very woobly front tooth.

Disney Graduation Day

As part of the end of Kindergarten celebrations Arthur and his classmates were taken to meet Mickey Mouse, be presented with a Disney Graduation certificate and be part of the Disneyland parade. Here he is looking most unimpreseed in a car at teh head of the parade.

Arthur's Kindergarten Graduation - "The Oscars"

Last Saturday there was a graduation ceremony for the children leaving the Kindergarten for Primary School. God bless 'em. All the children had to entertain the teachers and parents and Arthur was given the job of standing up and thanking the teachers - in Cantonese! He did it though, after spending a week learning the three minue speech so he could say it without stopping , (encouraged no doubt by the promise of a new bicycle if he succeeded). We were very proud of him and actually very impressed with the achievements of all the children. The girl standing next to Arthur in the photo spoke for three minutes in Mandarin.