School daze

So we have just completed A.'s second week at the Canadian and V. has just started at Sunshine House. A. seems to be settling in OK but we will no doubt find out more when we go to Tuesday's curriculum night. V. also seems to be enjoying herself- never thought that I would be in favour of a 2 year old going to school when I arrived here but she seems to be taking it all in her stride.

Just completed our rent renewal at Tai Tam Towers. We have looked elsewhere particularly Pokfulam and South Bay but have found nowhere where we want to live that is cheap enough to give us a saving that would justify the hassle of moving everybody. A life of penury awaits and the car (13 years old and so far 3 1/2 years of faultless service) has started to display worrying signs of wear and tear - the guy at Stanley garage seems to think it might be the head gasket which is not good news (even to my completely unmechnical mind...). Never rains etc.

Went to a pleasant BBQ-cum-party for one of A's friends this afternoon and seeing some friends after lunch tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will hold (although they did close the pool because of a thunderstorm warning earlier today).

Off to South Korea for the first time next week so should be an interesting few days.

Back to School

A. has now started at the Canadian International School so we have been waiting with bated breath and fingers-crossed to see how he gets on. It will be his third school in 9 months having finished at his kindergarten in December and then spent a couple of terms at the local ESF. We attended a "parents orientation" breakfast last week and it was amazing to see how teaching seems to have changed since those long ago days when I donned my short trousers and deep navy jumper to attend primary school. Although billed as a breakfast event the presentations lasted until around 10:30 and we heard from everyone from the head teacher to the School nurse - all with powerpoint presentations and hyper-text links to the relevant part of the school website. Communication was a big theme with teachers and support staff all emphasising their roles, aims and how they could be contacted (mainly email). It was very impressive and generated a very positive buzz among the 100 + parents who attended. For a school with 1,600 + students it has managed to avoid the rather impersonal air that large learning institutions can sometimes develope and E. and I were suitably buoyed by the experience. Last weekend was spent preparing A. for his first swimming lesson today. The weather was excellent and as a result the pool water was like a warm bath - perfect for swimming. A. made a huge breakthrough in donning his swim-goggles and swimming underwater for the first time. Of course having cracked it he spent the next couple of hours hurling himself into the pool from ever greater heights and then his 2 year old sister decided to follow suit so I spent most of the time catching V. and reminding A. to keep his mouth closed as he jumped in. Great fun was had by all. His swimming lesson also appears to have been a success although as usual trying to get A. tell us about his school day was like trying to get blood out of the proverbial stone. One of the hand-outs at last week's orientation was an extract from a newspaper article about how to elicit information from students about what they did at school. I am glad that we are not the only ones who are forced to adopt a combination of the cross-examination technique of George Carmen QC and the persistence of the Spanish Inquisition to find out what we are spending our money on!

Summer Special

Back from our hols in UK. I was very lucky with the weather - in 2 1/2 weeks there was only one day that was a complete washout - according to Em the three weeks she and the kids spent back home before my arrival were similar to my one bad day. No doubt it will pour down on my next trip home. We had a number of celebrations for V.'s second birthday including a BBQ at my father's for the family and various friends with children including P & V with their two girls and R. & A with their boy and girl. Great fun was had by all and it was good to see everybody again. V. is very tall for her age - 3 feet high but is actually fairly well co-ordinated (although she sported a cracking black eye when I saw her at the end of July after having apparently fallen down the stairs at Grandma P and Grandad T's in Bristol). She still runs everywhere - Little Miss Runalot! Her favourite words still remain "mine" and "no" and 'sharing' is still more likely to end up in a punch-up than any actual sharing. Although she seems to understand a lot more than she is immediately prepared to let on her vocabulary is predominantly still in Verity-speak which she is quite happy to employ whenever she is addressing anybody (or anything - her dolls and inanimate objects that have caused her pain). Its fascinating to see how different V. is from A at the same age. A was (and remains) far more biddable - with V. if she doesn't want to do something or things are not just so then the whole world knows about it at top volume. She is also very much more robust in defending her corner (or grabbing something she wants) as her cousin J learnt on a number of occasions while we were on holiday. A and his cousin N are getting on a great deal better than before. There was a time up until and including last Summer's holiday that we thought that they would never be able to play together unsupervised without ending up fighting. Whilst it is still a risk leaving them unsupervised that they will get up to trouble at least they are not hitting each other any more. However, V and J are still at and age where there is likely to be trouble (usually instigated by V.).

We saw a good deal of my Sister M and her husband B which was great although M is still horrendously busy and stressed with work. We did however manage a really nice trip up to the London Aquariam (including travel by train which as quite challenging with 4 kids and one of the party on crutches) and visits to Broadstairs, my Mother's sister M in Balham as well as various parts of Kent. We also took Dad with us on a number of excursions including Camber Sands (the sea was at least 1/2 a mile form the shore which was quite a challenge when the kids wanted a paddle). My Father bore our presence stoically but I imagine he was pleased to have a bit of piece and quiet when we finally left.

Back in HK contemplating a move away from Tai Tam towers after a 40% rent hike. Will have to make a decision soon but still checking out other options on the South-side. In other news, we have also just experienced a T9 Storm signal so a day off for everybody on Friday - almost a direct hit (hence the T9 rather than the usual T8 for Typhoons). The TV pictures from Sai Kung and Kowloon-side showed some pretty powerful winds but here at T T Towers we seemed relatively unscathed.

Any way last day of the Olympics so fingers crossed for some more GB success. Em and I went to the show-jumping final at Shatin on Monday which was good fun - the radio commentary at the venue certainly helped us understand what was happening. Hopefully our next Olympic visit will be in London in 2012.