Wizard Chess

Hannah has become quite obsessed with Harry Potter, especially after getting the DVDs for Christmas.

She likes to watch the movies again and again and talk about them.  We have had a lot of discussions about acting, magic and what is real or not real.

After watching the first movie for the 25th time she wanted to learn 'wizard chess'.  So we have had a few sessions.

Video:  first chess game

Video:  more chess

My challange is to arrange the game so Hannah can say "queen to E5!" which is one of the lines from the film.  And to keep Minimi off the board.  And to teach Hannah to say 'pawn' rather than 'prawn'

Birthday Party

On Saturday Hannah was invited to the birthday party of her classmate Kayla.  This was held at the clubhouse BBQ area of the Red Hill Peninsular complex in Tai Tam.

Kayla's granddad supervising the balloons.

Hannah with classmates Sophie and Jane.   Maybe that's Kayla's yacht in the background

The highlight of the Party was an animal and reptile show by Goatee Tony's Safari Company  (I don't know why he is called Goatee Tony since he didn't have any goats)

Goatee Tony's animal show.

Birthday girl covered in snakes.   Kayla was very brave to go first even though she was initially scared.

We all got to handle the snakes and reptiles,  I was surprised how soft and smooth the snakes skin were.    And their colours and patterns were really quite beautiful.

Video:

Kayla's granny with a frog on her head.   I liked meeting Kayla's grandparents, they seemed really nice and fun.

Petting the rabbit.   Minimi would have enjoyed this...

Birthday Cake.

Hannah has been very lucky to enjoy many different birthday parties laid on by her classmates parents.  Animal shows, clowns, face-painting, magicians, bouncy castles, enormous playrooms at exclusive clubs, beach parties with wonderful catering.  

But the pressure is building on us to match this standard for Hannah's birthday in June, ideally without repeating something thats already been done this year.   So we brainstormed with Hannah and her is the current list:

• Park-view rock-climbing experience
• Hele-copter trip.
• Bungy jumping
• Pony Horse Unicorn rides
• Chainsaw jugglers

BBQ

On the first sunday of the year we had a BBQ in the Tai Tam country park just down from Parkview.   It says something for the Hong Kong's climate that its nice to eat outdoors in the middle of winter.

Hong Kong's country parks and beaches have many BBQ areas.  They are quite popular, especially with parties of Aunties who often have the most amazing feasts.

So we thought it was time to give it a go.

This was good fun.  Rika was proud of her fire-making and cooking skills

Hannah enjoyed looking after Minimi and insisted on carrying him for a surprisingly long time.

Video:  Hannah carrying Minimi in the park.

Shortly after this we got busted by a Park Ranger for bringing Minimi into the park.   Although dog owners can brings their dogs without a leash,  is actually illegal to bring other animals without a permit.   I checked the regulations and cats are indeed specifically forbidden along with goats and sheep.    So until we gets a permit, as the Ranger said, its "no more next time" for Minimi.

Christmas

We had a low-key christmas at home.

First presents from Santa.    Hannah was excited (and perhaps releived) to find that Santa has visited and filled her stocking.   She received a music box, play doh and a play doh accessory that makes 'ice-cream'.

Video:  christmas stocking

Then exchanging presents from the family.   We gave Hannah a set of Harry Potter DVDs.  (with the unexpected consequence that we had to buy a new DVD player in January after one of the disks mysteriously got stuck in the DVD player)

For christmas lunch we went to the teahouse.  This was a lavish buffet

with lots of decorations

 silly hats

a visit from Santa

and face-painting for the kids

After Christmas we went briefly to Japan for new year.   We stayed briefly in Tokyo again then went down to Izu for New Year with Baba and the family.   For some reason I didn't take any photos at all in that trip.

Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe

As a special treat for  Christmas Eve we went to see the Wuhan Acrobatic Troupe.  

I'd left it late to book so we could only get tickets for a show in Yuen Long in the New Territories near the border, which was an adventure in itsself.  

There were only a few single seats left but luckily near the front so we had an excellent view.

The show was terrific display of skill with acrobatics, traipse, plate spinning...

hat juggling...

...and my favourite, the bendy ladies.   One thing that surprised me, but perhaps shouldn't, was how chunky the female acrobats were.

Here is a link to a video of the show (here).

We also had a interesting trip home.  Since the theatre was some distance from the station, we walked through the new town which was very lively with diners and shoppers.

We eventually took a night bus back into Hong Kong along route 3 which goes through Tai Lam tunnel through the mountain then past my work, and under the harbour.   The lights looked lovely and Hannah snuggled up and went to sleep in my arms.

Ice Skating

There are 4 ice skating rinks in Hong Kong, including one in the ICC mall just under my work.  

We took Hannah skating there on Sunday morning.  Hannah had a lot of fun and did pretty well for a first time.

And then Hannah took Minimi for a neco sampo in the park in the afternoon

Feng Shui

Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of positioning objects and buildings in harmony with nature to bring about good fortune, is taken seriously in Hong Kong.  (link)

I've wanted to blog about this for some time but couldn't get a clear story.  Nevertheless there we a couple of stories from December.

Firstly there was recent office gossip about a senior trader who had been doing badly and put it down to bad feng shui.  So he summoned a consultant in December to reorganize his office.  My colleagues followed his trading performance closely and were amused to note it improved immediately (although subsequently dipped again), and were tempted to write "good performance due to favourable feng shui" in our weekly PL commentary.  

Shortly after that I met a manager responsible for our premises at a social event and was able to ask him about it.   He said that since many staff care about feng shui the management employ consultants to periodically check out the office for feng shui problems and deal with specific issues like our trader's office (link).

When my company first moved into the ICC building, the initial floor-plan was radically changed after feng shui experts pointed out inauspicious orientation of the desks.   Also in a recent review hanging objects put up by staff were removed because they created a 'feng shui' hazard.

He also said the ICC building was designed to reflect positive energy on the neighborhood.  Shortly afterwards I took this photo of the ICC at dawn from Wong Nai Chung gap near Parkview.

Apparently the ICC "building employs the metaphor of the dragon, an auspicious animal in traditional feng shui. The facade is composed of angled glass tiles, which suggest scales."

On our trading floor we have a dragon gong, which I think is for feng shui.  The trading floor in Tokyo also had one.

We also have golden lions guarding the south-east side facing the water.   I saw similar lions facing the water in the dance studio where I sometimes do tango classes.

Next to the ICC is a building called 'The Arch' which has a hole in the middle. One colleague told me this is auspicious as it 'lets the dragons to fly through from mountain to the water'.  Ive not seen this principle written in any feng shui summaries but there are certainly many buildings with holes in them in Hong Kong.

Rika once told me about a 'feng shui war' between the HSBC and its nearby rival the Bank of China.  The HSBC building is well known to have good feng shui (link, link) due to its location with its back to mountains, facing the harbour across a public square where good energy can accumulate, at junction of major roads coming down from the mountains ('dragon veins'), and a focal point between 5 major peaks ('dragons').   And of course it has 2 famous lions guarding its entrance.

BOC on left, HSBC on right

The story goes that the Bank of China building was constructed higher than HSBC with aerials to monopolize good energy from above and uses triangles project bad energy down to the HSBC (and the British government house).   Apparently HSBC took defensive steps to reflect this bad luck back on the BOC using things like mirrors and metal rods (link,  link).   But I've also read that BOC was unusual in being designed without consulting feng shui experts at all and as a result has terrible feng shui.

Where is the Ideal Feng Shui place to live in Hong Kong?  According to one expert, its Parkview! due to its location in a focus between mountains :   "Hong Kong Park View is the best place to live. This is rather significant since Jardine Lookout, Violet Hill and Wong Nai Chung Gap provide a good support for Hong Kong Park View! Such site is able to harness kind energy permeated".   (link)