New Territories Primary School Swimming Competition

This year was Arthur's last year at the primary schools competition as he moves on up to secondary school next term.   Despite breaking the Islands District 50m record in 2014 and 2015, the elusive New Territories record remained just out of his reach.   Matthew on the other hand has two more years to beat his brother's records. 

Here they are with the New Territories regional combined points trophy for fourth place (just squeezed out of third by one point)   Not bad for a very small district with only 12 schools when competing against other districts with 50 or more schools to select a team from.

 

This video is the 50m final, Arthur is in lane 2.   A great race but with less than 0.5 seconds between 3rd and 5th places, I reckon for the next big competition he needs to let his nails grow longer.  

50m Freestyle winners (Arthur 4th)

4 x 50m Freestyle winners (3rd place)

Districts' combined points winners  (4th place)

Well done boys and well done Islands' District too.

Islands District, Inter Schools Athletics

 

Chucking the ball competition.   Gold last year, for Arthur but fourth this year thanks to the participation of the cricket fanatics no doubt!

Look out Mr. Bolt

Arthur (second from right) and his school pals celebrate their win in the Island District school athletics competitions.   Well done boys.

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.

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.

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.

Mid Autumn Festival - lantern Competition

Each year the kindergarten send the children home with instructions to the parents asking us to help the children make a lantern for the mid autumn lantern festival. And yes for the third year runnning we ignore the letter until the night before the lanterns are due in school.

After some frantic efforts with torn up newspapers, glue made from flour and water and some balloons and paint we eventually arrived at the end result.

Matthew, on the left is proudly displaying his "Sponge Bob Square Pants" lantern while Arthur is holding his "Patrick" lantern.