Minimi

Hannah has enjoyed having Minimi to play with.
  

She likes to cuddle him and carry him around.

 I've warned Hannah that if she is too rough she'll go cross-eyed

Sometimes Minimi has to retreat to somewhere high and safe.

Back to School

On Wednesday evening we had a 'back to school' event at Hannah's school.   This comprised meetings with the specialist teachers in Art, Music and Chinese, see a presentation on the curriculum by the Principal and also meet Hannah's teacher and the other parents in her class.   Also a chance to volunteer to help.  I got carried away somewhat signed up to play Shakuhachi for Hannah's class.  When I told Hannah she wasn't very supportive of the idea....

We were also able to see some of Hannah's work.  

Note that Hannah's wish is for a baby sister - who is already drawn in her picture of her family.   The  red car she wants is apparently a Ferrari from the showroom in Repulse Bay that the school bus passes every day.

And it was a pleasant surprise to see 'David' at the school. 

(This is a model of naughty 'David' from David Shannon's 'No David' books)

Coda Cub

On Monday Hannah enjoyed a much anticipated event - the first visit to our house of Coda Cub!   Coda Cub is a little teddy bear from her school with 'School Rocks' tattooed embroidered on its feet.  The students in Hannah's class take turns bringing the bear home and playing with it. Then they write about it a book which accompanies the bear, and present it to the class the next day.

Hannah with Coda Cub (right) and Vivaldi (left)

It is a very sweet idea and a nice opportunity for the kids to express themselves and work with their parents.  We also enjoyed being able to share this with Granny and Granddad.  Each family can see what the other families write in the book.   So no pressure!    Given the opportunity for alpha-mama competition, I imagined the book would show Coda Cub driving Dad's Ferrari, shopping at Chanel, playing golf at the American Club and dining in Michelin 3-Star restaurants.   But actually it was very sweet and down-to-earth. 

So how did Hannah entertain Coda Cub?    Well, after playing with Minimi and her bear Vivaldi,  Hannah took Coda Cub to watch her swimming in the pool

Granddad read Coda Cub and Hannah a nice story called "A kiss for little bear"

Coda Cub joined the family singing Happy Birthday to Granny

And then we had to write about it in the book before it got too late.   We asked Hannah what she wanted to say and wrote it down so she could copy it into the book.  She wrote the first sentence and then wanted me to take turns.

 Fortunately I have the handwriting of a 5-year-old so nobody will ever notice.

Then it was time to put Coda Cub and Hannah to bed to be ready for school the next day.

Kowloon Side

Sunday was Granny's 73rd birthday.  To mark the occasion I took my parents on a forced march across Kowloon in the baking heat.  Or that's how it seemed to turn out.

The plan was to start off early with the Nan Lian Gardens, #1 on the Rough Guide's list of sights not to miss.  "Elegant reconstruction of a Tang dynasty garden provides an oasis of calm in the city".

The Nan Lian Gardens and the Chi Lin nunnery next door looked really lovely.   However by the time we got there it was over 30 degrees.   Hannah already wanted to go home and was in no mood to admire 'scholar's rocks'.   So we ended up racing round trying to find shade and oases of air-conditioning.

Video:  Nan Lian Gardens

Next stop was the Kowloon Walled City Park, another lovely garden, this one built on the site of the notorious Kowloon Walled City.   The walled city was a Chinese fort which, due to a dispute over jurisdiction, became an essentially lawless enclave between Britain's leasing of the New Territories in 1898 and its demolition in 1991 (link).

Kowloon Walled City in 1989

Kowloon Walled City Park - Yamen

Unfortunately it was simply too hot to enjoy this lovely garden, and the highlight for us became the air-conditioned display in the old yamen (government quarters) building.   So we moved on.  We tried and failed to find somewhere cool nearby to eat lunch, and moved on to the next planned stop - the bird market.    (Hannah also spotted a good children's cycle track in Carpenter Rd which we promised her we'd come back to).

The bird-market is both a market and also a place where bird fanciers can bring their birds to show them off and enjoy listening them singing to each other (perhaps 'blues' numbers complaining about the size of their cages).

Video:  Bird Market

One lady kindly offered to let us to hold her bird.

Hannah taking a video of the birds...

...and the result.

The bird-market, and the flower market next door were very picturesque.  But very hot and sadly devoid of restaurants, tea-rooms or ice-cream parlors.   So with blood-sugar drooping we yomped quickly through the flower-market to find an emergency cafe and a taxi home.   Planned visits to the goldfish market and ladies market were cancelled in favor of taking Hannah to the Deepwater Bay beach.

Hannah and I enjoyed a swim in the sea.  And then we all had dinner at Coco Thai.

On Monday, Hannah was at school so Granny,  Granddad and I went back to Kowloon to visit the Museums of Art and History.    We rode the tram from Happy Valley to Central and took the Star Ferry across Victoria harbor.    One of the worlds great boat rides.

Video:  Star Ferry

At the Museum of Art we saw an exhibition of artifacts from the Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City in Beijing, dating to the late 1700s.   The Qianlong garden was built in the 1780s by the Emperor Quianlong.  The exhibition and artifacts were very impressive and tasteful but inevitably I got brain-strain after about 40 min.   And the gallery shop also looked really interesting.   So Im keen to go back and check it out in smaller doses.

We had a nice lunch across the road at the lobby cafe in the Peninsular Hotel.   We sipped tea and watched very rich people emerging from the Hotel's fleet of Rolls-Royces.   The tea and food were excellent although I noted that cheeseburgers had replaced cucumber sandwiches on the menu.

Then onward to the Museum of History where we saw the first half of the permanent exhibition the Hong Kong Story.   We plan to return to see the other half and also the blockbuster exhibition of artifacts from China's first emperor (of terra-cotta army fame) which we were just too late to see.