Hazy shade of Autumn

Have been rather remiss in updating since September although in my defence it has been a bit hectic. Made a flying visit back to Blighty for a conference and M.'s 40th birthday. Flew Oasis - Hong Kong's "budget' long haul airline for the first time (business class only slightly more expensive than premium economy) and had a very comfortable trip. Conference was at a nice hotel outside Stratford upon Avon - thought I had never been their before but it looked very familiar when we drove through it - can't imagine that there is another town so similar so must have had a previous (wholly unmemorable) trip.

Travelled down to London on the Saturday to meet M. and B for a trip to the Sir John Soane museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields - this must be one of the best free entry pieces of entertainment in London - Soane was an architect who specialised in iconic large-scale projects like the Bank of England and the House of Lords (- a kind of 19th Century Norman Foster) and he converted his house (in fact three adjacent houses) into a museum to house his collection of paintings, sculptures, marbles and various other pieces of flotsum and jetsum he picked up around in the early 1800s. He installed roof to ground floor light wells (with yellow tinted windows) to show off his collection and a hanging floor where he used to lecture his students. He had to remove an entire wall to install a monumental Eygptian tomb which he had purchased from under the noses of the British Museum for the princely sum of GBSterling 2000. He then successfully lobbiedfor an Act of Parliament to be passed to providing that the house was kept in exactly the same condition as the day he died (I think in around 1829). Very impressive.

We then went to the Ivy for dinner and then on to the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand to see Stomp! A very inventive "musical" based on sounds using everyday objects (brooms etc.). After buying the Sunday papers we then headed home for a very well deserved rest.

We had the "official" 40th party the following day celebrating in style at a Belgium restaurant in West Malling with Mum and Dad, K. A. C and D. Back to HK the following evening.

Since I have been back we have had the Mid-Autumn Lantern festival (too cloudy for the beach unfortunately so A and I went down the following evening to see the new moon).

We have also just celebrated A's 5th Birthday - managed to keep the numbers down to 20/25 children this year after last year's chaos and we also held it on the day of his birthday mid-week so a lot easier this time round.

We are off to Kota Kinabalo (the wilds of Borneo) next Thursday for a week - by coincidence some friends of ours will also be there for a few days so in amongst all the relaxing that we will hopefully be doing I might manage some whitewater rafting and possibly even some golf (having not picked a club in three years, that will undoubtely prove to be interesting....).

Once we get back I will be off on business to Singapore for a few days and then possibly Beijing followed by Dubai where I am speaking at a conference so a whirlwind month in prospect (just making my excuses in advance for failing to update this log).