Gone Fishing

Great day at a BBQ in the New Territories. Stopped off at the local fish market and managed to completely over-order - scallops, fish (Garopa?), Mantis Prawns, King Prawns, and ordinary prawns. There were around 12 of us in total (together with 7 kids) some travelling by car and some by boat meeting at the VRC just the otherside of Clearwater Bay. We has also stocked up at Taste with some meat .. but so had everyone else and we ended up with far too many prawns which were utltimately brought home for D to turn into spicy prawn.

We had gone to the fish market rather than the local fish restaurants which is what we had done last Summer - it was around 1/3 the price although it certainly helped having a Cantonese speaker (E who organised the whole trip). Kids as usual had a great time on the beach although E. was bitten to death by the local bugs.

Last night we went out to Dinner with some French friends - S. and another A.. Quite an interesting bunch of people including a local actress who lives in our block who is in the local Cantonese movies - unfortunately not an area I know much about but she seemed nice enough.

V. has cut her first tooth and is sufficiently proud of it to try to eat anything that comes in range. A. seems to enjoy V. pulling his hair and gnerally trying to nibble his clothes so it makes for a reasonably harmonious relationship.

Easter Update

Tickets for the 7s were duly secured - there was even an excess as a number of offers of tickets were made in the final few days. I went on the Friday night after a very mixed day at work (extended deadline needed on one of the projects but also a gift hamper for a seminar I had presented the previous week - most unusual). I met up with an old contact of mine from London for a quick chat and a beer and then off to the South Stand for more beers and revelry. I was wildly over-dressed - absolutely no need for a sweater!

Saturday I took A. up in the morning and ran in to K. and we all spent an enjoyable morning perched high in the stands enjoying the rugby. Later A. was royally entertained by L and his new wife A as well as L's father who was also over for the rugby. A came away with a number of Coca Cola tattoos (which took app proximately 1 week to remove ( - a bit embarrassing particularly the one on his forehead - E. forbade any further tattoos). E. came along in the afternoon and took A. home and I met up with N and G.

Took A up on Sunday with K and J and we spent a great day watching including a superb match between Fiji and New Zealand in the semis which included a fabulous one end of the pitch to the other try by Fiji at the end.

Again horrendously busy at work but managed to catch our flight to Singapore on the Thursday to see K & G. Very relaxing Easter break including BBQs and an Easter egg hunt with their children. I came back on the Monday but didn't get up to much other than work due to cold etc. and returned to Singapore on the Thursday night. Day at Sentosa Beach on the Friday with A. and M. which was very pleasant although slightly disconcerting to see literally hundreds of tankers and cargo ships moored just offshore. We also got caught in a spectacular thunderstorm which required a "three caterpillars" story to take the kids attention away from the lightening and thunder.

Arrive back in HK on Sunday evening and have hardly stopped since at work with various meetings etc. to deal with yesterday and today.

Now planning a return to Blighty for a combined 4/40/80 birthday party in June so much to organise.