Granny and Granddad
Mum and Dad
Hannah and her imaginary little-sister called Ali.
And Minimi
And this is Hannah's photo from her school photos.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Family Portrait
When Granny and Granddad were visiting Hannah drew a family portrait
Granny and Granddad
Mum and Dad
Hannah and her imaginary little-sister called Ali.
And Minimi
And this is Hannah's photo from her school photos.
Granny and Granddad
Mum and Dad
Hannah and her imaginary little-sister called Ali.
And Minimi
And this is Hannah's photo from her school photos.
Sunday, 28 October 2012
Tai Po Waterfront Park
On Sunday we took Hannah to a park at Tai Po in the New Territories which is apparently a good place to bicycle. This is part of my campaign to try all the children's cycling spots in Hong Kong.
The Tai Po New Town is quite built-up with the standard-issue tower-blocks but it also has many cycle-paths and a big and attractive waterfront park with playgrounds and cycle-rental etc.
This is the a kite-flying area (with kite-eating trees decorated with string).
The park has a small observation tower. This is the view looking east. You can see MaOnShan mountain looks striking to the right, and has its new town along the coast where we cycled earlier in the year.
Video: Tolo Harbour from observation tower.
At the end of the promenade is a play-ground and a cafe selling a range of chinese junk-food
Hannah enjoyed an ice-cream.
She also got to play in the various playgrounds but didn't find them anything special. Overall she says her favorite cycle-track is still Carpenter Road in Kowloon. I'd like to try the 11km cycle-path from Tai Po to Shatin, but we need to wait for Hannah to get a bit bigger.
Final score for the afternoon: 8 union-jack t-shirts plus (bonus point) a union-jack cycle helmet
The Tai Po New Town is quite built-up with the standard-issue tower-blocks but it also has many cycle-paths and a big and attractive waterfront park with playgrounds and cycle-rental etc.
This is the a kite-flying area (with kite-eating trees decorated with string).
The park has a small observation tower. This is the view looking east. You can see MaOnShan mountain looks striking to the right, and has its new town along the coast where we cycled earlier in the year.
Video: Tolo Harbour from observation tower.
We hired cycles and cycled through the trees along the 1km waterfront promenade.
At the end of the promenade is a play-ground and a cafe selling a range of chinese junk-food
Hannah enjoyed an ice-cream.
She also got to play in the various playgrounds but didn't find them anything special. Overall she says her favorite cycle-track is still Carpenter Road in Kowloon. I'd like to try the 11km cycle-path from Tai Po to Shatin, but we need to wait for Hannah to get a bit bigger.
Final score for the afternoon: 8 union-jack t-shirts plus (bonus point) a union-jack cycle helmet
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Sky 100
Grannys priority was to see the view from the top of the ICC.
So on Sunday evening we went up to Sky 100 observation deck on the 100th floor The air was reasonably clear and we had a nice view of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour from 390m up.
Granny and Granddad looking north-west.
Granddad looking out over Kowloon.
From the 100th floor, the roof-top pool on the 60th floor of the W hotel seems a long way down.
Granny and Granddad looking west to the sunset.
After that we went up a further 20 floors to the Ozone Bar on the 120th floor. This time we didn't get a seat with a view.
Hannah insisted on wearing her sunglasses to look cool. She was imitating a character from the Won Kar Wei film 'Chungkung Express' which we had all watched last night.
So on Sunday evening we went up to Sky 100 observation deck on the 100th floor The air was reasonably clear and we had a nice view of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour from 390m up.
Granny and Granddad looking north-west.
Granddad looking out over Kowloon.
From the 100th floor, the roof-top pool on the 60th floor of the W hotel seems a long way down.
Granny and Granddad looking west to the sunset.
After that we went up a further 20 floors to the Ozone Bar on the 120th floor. This time we didn't get a seat with a view.
Hannah insisted on wearing her sunglasses to look cool. She was imitating a character from the Won Kar Wei film 'Chungkung Express' which we had all watched last night.
As we rode up in the lift from the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, some guests asked Hannah "whats your name little girl?". Hannah replied "Lady Gaga".
After Ozone, we all went for dinner at a Korean BBQ resrurant in the world trade center in Causeway Bay. Unfortunately Id caught a stomach bug and couldn't eat anything.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Lookalike (8)
Hannah Papa and Terry Cotta the warrior are surely related.
Hannah Papa Terry Cotta
This is Hannah-papa and Hanna-mama together. Isn't that romantic!
If you detect some resemblance you are not mistaken. One of the fun exhibits was a system to scan your face and then project it onto a terra-cotta warrior model.
This is Hannah-papa and Hanna-mama together. Isn't that romantic!
Eternal Realm of China's First Emperor
Granddad's top priority for his return to Hong Kong was to visit the block-buster exhibition of artifacts from the tomb of China's first emperor at the Hong Kong Museum of History. It was booked-out when they visited last time, so this time we made sure to visit first thing on a weekday morning.
This was an absolutely fantastic exhibition, showing artifacts from the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor who united China around 200 BC. This tomb is now famous for the terra-cotta army, which was just one part of a funeral complex that took 700,000 workers to create.
The exhibition was stunning with many amazing and historically significant artifacts, intelligently and wittily presented with good use of multimedia. No wonder more than 300,000 people have visited this exhibition in Hong Kong so far.
Video: terra-cotta warrior welcoming visitors
Video: terra-cotta warriors attacking Japanese visitors
One highlight was the chance to see terra-cotta warriors up close.
Cavalryman with horse.
An archer with some of his original paint still intact. This gives some idea how life-like they would originally have appeared.
A musician
Video: bronze chariot
Crossbow in its holder on the chariot.
This was a surprise: not only were tehe Chinese using cross-bows as early as 200BC, but the Qin were mass-producing them with inter-changable parts. This is a cross-bow trigger mechanism.
At the end of the exhibition was a neat display of how the terra-cotta warriors had been made. Appropriately enough in the form of two terra-cotta dioramas.
The bodies were mass-produced to a few standard types -infantry, cavalry, officers etc.
The heads were sculpted separately presumably in the likeness of individual soldiers since no two are the same.
After the figures were fired, they were painted
Video: production of terra-cotta horse
This was an absolutely fantastic exhibition, showing artifacts from the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor who united China around 200 BC. This tomb is now famous for the terra-cotta army, which was just one part of a funeral complex that took 700,000 workers to create.
The exhibition was stunning with many amazing and historically significant artifacts, intelligently and wittily presented with good use of multimedia. No wonder more than 300,000 people have visited this exhibition in Hong Kong so far.
Video: terra-cotta warrior welcoming visitors
One highlight was the chance to see terra-cotta warriors up close.
Cavalryman with horse.
An archer with some of his original paint still intact. This gives some idea how life-like they would originally have appeared.
A musician
Video: terra-cotta musician and birds
The most amazing artifact was the half-size bronze chariot. As well as being beautufully detailed and well preserved, its also a technically impressive example of casting.
Video: bronze chariot
Crossbow in its holder on the chariot.
This was a surprise: not only were tehe Chinese using cross-bows as early as 200BC, but the Qin were mass-producing them with inter-changable parts. This is a cross-bow trigger mechanism.
At the end of the exhibition was a neat display of how the terra-cotta warriors had been made. Appropriately enough in the form of two terra-cotta dioramas.
The bodies were mass-produced to a few standard types -infantry, cavalry, officers etc.
The heads were sculpted separately presumably in the likeness of individual soldiers since no two are the same.
After the figures were fired, they were painted
Video: production of terra-cotta horse
Granny and Granddad
Granny and Granddad stopped over in Hong Kong again on their way back from their big trip to Europe, and I took some more time off work.
The temperature in Hong Kong is now much more comfortable than when they were here in Aug. Nevertheless we took it easy and didn't embark on any major sight-seeing expeditions this time.
Dad was happy to catch up with the papers.
We did one short 'neco sampo' in the park.
And tried to find some good chinese food. This is Granny at Ming Yuen
And of course the obligatory Saturday evening poolside buffet.
Video: Hannah didn't miss the opportunity to tell Granny and Granddad what she wants for her birthday.
The temperature in Hong Kong is now much more comfortable than when they were here in Aug. Nevertheless we took it easy and didn't embark on any major sight-seeing expeditions this time.
Dad was happy to catch up with the papers.
We did one short 'neco sampo' in the park.
And tried to find some good chinese food. This is Granny at Ming Yuen
Video: Hannah didn't miss the opportunity to tell Granny and Granddad what she wants for her birthday.
Sunday, 14 October 2012
New Posts
Since it was a quiet weekend I was able to clear some of the back-log from 2011 caused by the March earthquake and then relocating to Hong Kong.
Back-dated posts added recently.
Charity Bazar (7-Oct-12)
Parklife 4 (7-Oct-12)
Neco Sampo (6-Oct-12) link
NZ - Milford Sound (18-Dec-12) link
NZ - Queenstown (17-Dec-11) link
Happy Holidays (16-Dec-11) link
Aftershocks (30-Nov-11) link
RIP Sasuke 2002-2011 (11-Nov-11) link
Yoyogi International School Graduation Ceremony (8-Jun-11) link
Komoso (5-Jun-11) link
Back-dated posts added recently.
Charity Bazar (7-Oct-12)
Parklife 4 (7-Oct-12)
Neco Sampo (6-Oct-12) link
NZ - Milford Sound (18-Dec-12) link
NZ - Queenstown (17-Dec-11) link
Happy Holidays (16-Dec-11) link
Aftershocks (30-Nov-11) link
RIP Sasuke 2002-2011 (11-Nov-11) link
Yoyogi International School Graduation Ceremony (8-Jun-11) link
Komoso (5-Jun-11) link
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