Ma on Shan Tsuen again and again

Fall has come to Hong Kong. In our family we refer to it as a Michigan Summer. We took advantage of the lower humidity and cooler temps and ventured to Ma on Shan Tsuen again.

 

Jane turns 8!

Jane turned 8 years old. This year on her birthday September 29th, there was also the first T8 Signal
of the typhoon season.

All of us parents say the same thing over and over; it goes by fast, and it so true.
 I know I can't make time slow down and keep my kids little and cute forever, but it is tempting to want to do just that.

I asked Jane 8 questions about herself.

Where would you go right now if you could go anywhere
Disneyland

What do you like
Jewelry

What do you like to do at school
Jump Rope

Favorite subject
IPC ( it is a curriculum at their school that centers around a theme based learning)

Favorite restaurant
Dan Ryan's

Favorite Song
Veggie Tales "God is bigger than the boogie man"

Favorite Movie
Tangled

What do you want to be when you grow up
Actress

I love the part in this video where Jane gets a hole in one during putt putt golf.


We love you Jane!

Mid- Autumn Festival

Moon cakes and lanterns, must mean it is Mid-Autumn time again. Looking for lanterns on what could be considered the last day of the festivities, results in slim pickins. Elliot's Angry Bird lantern not only had a rattling ball inside, it played music. Who thinks of these things? Certainly not parents. I was thankful Jane found a more traditional style lantern.

We met up with the Annis Family and headed over to the Sha Tin Carnival. Origami crafts and live performances kept us entertained between walking around to see all the displays. Jane loves peacocks so she was particularly excited with those lanterns.
Some of the live performances featured acrobatic strengths, contortionist and breaking poles over backs and heads.
We actually got a good view of the moon as well.

Nathan gets free moon cakes from work. I tried again this year, thinking maybe I would have developed a taste for the super sweet, dense lotus seed paste and egg yolk. It has not happened. I however have discovered I can eat the "Snowy" moon cakes that are less traditional and taste like fruits and don't have yolk oozing out of the middle.
I do love the collector tins and find uses for them around the house.

Hong Kong Fashion

Hong Kong has been called a Fashion Capital. Often compared to the likes of New York City, London and Paris. It is common to see a long line of people outside Louis Vuitton, waiting, even when it rains, to get inside.

"Copy hand bag,copy watch" can be heard night and day on the streets of Kowloon. This is the vendors attempt to try to sell you the more reasonably priced Gucci, Prada and Rolex. It is a safe assumption that a majority of people in Hong Kong, care about what they look like.

The fashion I see on a day to day basis reflects more of an eclectic look. Neon striped print top with an orange and black plaid mini skirt. What I like is the monochromatic approach, such as leopard print top, with the leopard print tights and Leopard print shoes. This outfit is made complete with the matching iphone cover.


This picture reminds me of Nesting in skyscrapers a regular post called "Have you ever seen?"
I am not as clever as Renee but here it goes.

Have you ever seen pants that could fly?

See a recent a fashion related post on the site
here



The kids cannot help but be influenced by HK fashion.

Jane wasn't quick enough to escape the camera.

That really was just them be silly.
This on the other hand was a battle I lost one morning before school. In spite of his really sad face, I didn't argue with him too long. I suggested he change and he said no. He was pouting because he didn't want his picture taken.

I think when I make my case for the Norwegian International School to have uniforms, I will simply bring in this photo.

This is how Jane tries to go to school.

This was actually taken from her last modeling shoot in Shenzhen. At least she got paid to look like that.


Aside from the fact that there are so many people in Hong Kong to look at, fashion is why people watching in HK for me, never grows dull.
Personally it frees me to wear whatever is clean on the days when the laundry has been neglected. I can grab whatever is left in my closet regardless of what it looks like and boldly go out in public. Who knows? maybe one of these days, it will get me on a blog.

Jemilla's Birthday

Jane's friend, Jemilla Harvey turned 9 and the Sweeney family was invited to the house to join the celebration.

Renee brought back these terrific mosaic crafts from their recent trip to Australia. It proved to be too long of a task for Elliot, but Jane finished it and was glad to bring it home.

These beautifully decorated cupcakes were a hit with the kids.

Thanks for a fun time Harvey family!

Happy Birthday Jemilla

Hoi Ha Sai Kung

We decided to head out to Hoi Ha to do some kayaking. We took a taxi from University to get there and took a red mini bus from Hoi Ha to Sai Kung bus terminus. There are a handful of locals renting out equipment selling snacks and drinks along the way down to the beach. We decided upon a two person kayak which cost 280HKD snorkel equipment 50HKD. This was only my second time in a kayak. Pictures taken with the Gopro. It has a fish eye lens so they can look a little distorted.

We kept having bees fly around us, here I caught one in the camera near Nathan's head.

Also spotted sea urchins and a jellyfish. Nathan was able to get a video of the jellyfish.

Seoul The End

KOREAN
BASEBALL
My love for Seoul was more than kimchi, donuts,coffee shops and free things to do. It is quite possible that The Koreans love of baseball really endeared the people and city to me. In the past 10 years I have come to really enjoy the sport and I was glad we made this part of our short trip to Korea. My friend Kate, who is from Seoul helped me navigate a Korean website and look at maps to determine if this is something we could do on our own. It was really simple once we got there and a lot of fun. The night before a big rival game went on between two teams. We heard that game might sell out and chose to visit the next day.
The Bears and Eagles were playing the day we arrived.

A player during practice gave the kids a baseball. They picked the Eagles as the team to root for shortly after that.

We only paid about $16USD and the kids were free. Again something else in Seoul we found inexpensive and a lot of fun.
Cheerleaders and chants made the game really entertaining. The songs were in Korean but we could hear the words Doosun(Bears) or Eagles being shouted out once in awhile.

The only downside was our ignorance of the food. Most American baseball stadiums forbid outside food and drink, we had that mindset and went in expecting to be able to find some delicious snacks from stadium vendors. We soon realized as we watched people bringing in KFC and Pizza that it was different in Korea. The vendors inside were selling only ramen and a few chips and soda.
Kate told me she remembers popcorn and hot dogs when she went to the game as a kid, maybe that is available on the busier nights? Next Time we will know to bring in our own food.


Stadium from the 1988 Summer games is near the ballpark.

This tea shop had notes and letters stuck all over the walls. Jane found a card and put her own note up. I don't know the names of the snacks we ordered with our tea. They were primarily sweet and had chewy,dense textures to them. One item reminded me of a mooncake. The tea I ordered had a strong cinnamon like flavor to it.

I hope to get back for a visit someday.

Seoul #4 Palaces etc.

Gyeongbokgung Palace was originally constructed in the 1300's and has been under ongoing reconstruction and rebuilding since the Japanese occupation in 1911. The two palaces we visited were sprawling and beautifully landscaped. They were inexpensive to enter and the other palace we visited didn't even charge us for Elliot.

The Children's Grand Park
There were playgrounds, and performances, but we spent most of our time looking at the animals. It had animals found in any world class zoo, I was surprised there wasn't any fee for the attractions or park.

Cheonggycheon
This river had been covered by concrete in 1968 for roads. A 900 million dollar project had it restored to a flowing stream in the heart of Seoul in 2005. It really is a nice oasis in the middle of the city, the kids enjoyed playing up and down it.

Subway
Seoul Metro system appeared to me safe and clean. We didn't find it as efficient and simple as Hong Kong, but I am beginning to think not many subway systems are as excellent as the HK MTR, and the Tube. The most confusing part was duplicate names of transfers or stations assigned a different number. Nathan being the good navigator always figured it out. It was sufficient and got us around. We did not take a single taxi or bus (aside from airport bus) during our time.