Reading and Writing

Hannah is having a lot of fun reading and writing.

Here she is writing a thank you note to Granny and Granddad.

Video:  writing to Granny and Granddad

Hannah also enjoys reading.   At school she studies reading and writing in English, and just a  few chinese characters.   For Japanese she studies at home on her own using an excellent multimedia course from Benesse called 'Shimajoro'.    So far, she says she enjoys Japanese more than English, which doesn't surprise me since Japanese in Hiragana is much less tricky than English.

Hannah sometimes reads bedtime stories.   Here she is reading "Mou NeNe" ("Sleeptime") a Japanese story book I used to read her when she was a baby.

Video:  'Mou Nene'

Video:  more 'Mou nene'

School Trip

On Friday Hannah class went for a school trip and I took a half-day off work to join them.   The trip was to The Peak to look at the city as part of a unit they are doing on the urban landscape.

The day started badly for us as we got up a bit late and Hannah didn't eat her breakfast, which I think set the tone for the whole day.

The parents met up in Hannah's classroom where I was struck by this useful sign.  The professionals at school do things differently from us parents!

Then we took a bus to the Peak Tram in Central

Once on the peak the class drew sketches of the city before having a snack.

It was a lovely day but Hannah didn't want to draw.

Hannah was very unlucky that her snack had been crushed - so she had not much more than biscuit dust to keep her going until lunch, which was also later than usual.   So she began to suffer from low blood sugar.

This is Hannah's teachers, Ms Copp1ns and Ms Chu.

The class did a route march around Lugard Road to a picnic spot at Hatton Road play-ground.  This was tough going for Hannah and she had difficulty understanding why I couldn't carry her like I usually do.

After lunch the kids had a chance to play together before we completed the circuit back to the Peak Tram.    This was a good chance for me to see Hannah interacting with her classmates, who seem like a really sweet group of kids.

But I was disappointed to see that on this particular day Hannah sometimes seemed to struggle to join the other girls in their activities and also initiated a couple of confrontations with boys which ended in small tantrums.   So I have to admit I was quite relieved when, as the trip progressed, a few of the other kids also got tired and whiny.

Class Photos at the Peak Tram

The nice photo:

and the silly photo:

Video:  Class Trip

It was a lovely trip and a lovely day but I finished the day somewhat anxious and disappointed about Hannah's behavior.   Then she surprised me again by being absolutely delightful for rest of the weekend.

Yoga Class

I have started attending lunch-time yoga sessions at my work which are taught by a very nice colleague of mine from Japan who also moved to Hong Kong last year.

They are held in a multi-purpose room near the staff canteen on the south side of the 56th floor with a dramatic view of Hong Kong Island.  Quite possibly the coolest yoga room on the planet.

Video panorama:

Festive Season (continued)

If you think the Christmas / New Year period seems to go on forever, you should visit  Hong Kong.

In January, the festive season moves smoothly and without pause from New Years day hang-over to pre-Chinese-New-Year.  It then builds up to the Chinese New Year day on 10-Feb and the New Year / Spring Festival which runs for 15 days.

So in Hong Kong the festive season runs from from late Nov to the end of February, just over 3 months.

Parkview

At Parkview the christmas decorations were adapted or replaced with Chinese New Year messages in January

There were further added to through February  in the build-up to the Lunar New Year on 10-Feb. 

The clubhouse entrance is decorated with 'golden fruit' trees and fire-crackers.   The firecrackers were traditionally set off to ...  but these days real crackers are banned for safety reasons, and we didn't hear any at all. 

A wishing tree in the clubhouse

New years gifts on sale.

Ming Yuen Resturant

ICC

At Elements mall in the ICC, the christmas display was replaced with a Chinese New Year one featuring chinese lions and balls.

Illuminations

The christmas lights in the buildings around the harbor continued without interruption.

There are basically 2 types of illuminations.  The fixed lights are a mix of christmas and chinese new year motifs and remain unchanged.  These ones on Harbor City featured Santa Claus from Nov to Feb. 

Other buildings like the ICC have massive LED displays, so they can switch from Christmas images and messages to Chinese New Year ones.

These 2 buildings below features carp swimming.

Then New Years Greetings and spring flowers...

Video:  LED Illuminations, shot from the sky lobby at ICC.

Video:  Illuminations in Admiralty and Wan Chai from the Parkview bus.  Note the two Santa Clauss.

Shopping

This is a shop in Causeway Bay selling red envelopes for New Years gifts.  Many snake motifs since 2013 is the year of the snake.

Note the union jack sweater.  A digression:  I thought Id see how many I could photograph in the next 15 min...

2 union jack caps...

...then 2 union jack t-shirts which I couldn't get photos of... 

And 2 union jack jumpers near Windsor House

But I digresss...