Last days in Hong Kong

The day after the stroller was recovered we met up with my old acquaintance from Kendal, 'Oli'.  We went for a walk with him, his wife, and two daughters 'up the peak' - which we were surprised (although with hindsight I am not sure why) to find was topped off with a shopping centre.  A good day's trek was finished off with a pizza!




And the view from the restaurant:



The next day we were at the Hong Kong Football Club to meet up with my old comrade-in-arms, Ian, and his new(ish) wife.  I'd bumped into him on High Holborn a few months beforehand and was delighted to get an invite to the Club .... particularly as it was opposite our hotel!

John made full use of the telephone whilst we waited in reception:



The football club is quite an amazing place, being set in the middle of the racecourse.  Apparently the Jockey Club wanted to move the track to upgrade the racecourse to an international standard ... and in order to get the Football Club to play ball (haha) they built them a whole new club house and set of facilities having destroyed the old ones.  It was a cool place, and it was really good to see Ian again after so many years (aside from bumping into him on Holborn that is!)

Stanley and the pram

Once we had finished at Ocean Park we decided to move on to Stanley.   The journey over was our first experience of Hong Kong taxis and couldn't quite believe how cheap they were.   We headed for Stanley because we'd heard there was an interesting market in this expat enclave; Laura had her mind set on beaches, whilst I was quite hungry! I won out, and fortunately we ended up in wonderful colonial building which was the former officers mess from the city centre (now called Murray House).

The building had been removed from the city centre during the 1980s, being taken apart brick by brick to sit in storage for around 20 years, prior to returning to its former glory in Stanley on the south side of the island.  We had expected the pizza restaurant (guide book!) which is odd enough but it was even odder to sit down to Spanish tapas.

An increasingly frequent occurrence, once John had lost interest in food (usually signalled by him standing up in his chair and trying to climb over the back of it) it was time to move on.  I wanted to see the old war cemetery so we crossed the promenade and headed east - arriving at about 1730 - just in time to see what I assume was the CWGC caretaker running for his bus (it's the only logical explanation for a Chinaman telling me 'going for my bus' whilst running out of a graveyard!). Fortunately for us the graveyard remained open - an interesting place with a mixture of tombs, war graves, and internee graves.  We spent about 15 to 20 minutes there, at which point we decided to take a very very long taxi journey back over towards our hotel which ended up costing the grand sum of about 10 quid.

That evening I searched high and low across the Internet, eventually finding a new MacLaren stroller on craigslist.  I had a chat on whatsapp with the vendor, and eventually steeled myself to go out to an unknown station in an unknown town to meet an unknown person to give them one hundred pounds. In the back of my mind was the thought that this was some kind of elaborate honey trap whereby tourist fathers are lured dark passages to be filled in by five Chinamen in order to relieve them of £100.  Fortunately I met J, who was a perfectly nice finance guy from a hotel soap manufacturer - who provided me with an up to date version of the MacLaren pram for a bargain price (for Hong Kong!).

John provides field guidance

Amazingly it's now our last night in Hong Kong.  I am lying on the floor of the living room of our suite whilst John chats away to his monther next door.  He's supposed to be asleep.

We arrived on Thirsday fairly late on, heading straight to Time Square for dinner.  I've found out today that Time Square is the most expensive piece of retail estate in the world - for reasons I will come on to later.

Saturday we headed down to Hong Kong's greatest theme park Ocean Park.  Us and hundreds of others looking to bang 30 quid over to the trust that owns it (I just found out it was established by the Jockey Club - more on them later).  We headed straight for the aquarium to cool off and give John something to do:

I am a bit upset with the third photo - now just because it is over-exposed, but because the Japanese spider crabs do not like flash cameras and although there are plenty of warning signs around I still failed to notice and turn my flash off!

We were also lucky enough to get to see giant pandas in a recently established, Jockey Club sponsored attraction.  When we entered the building the pandas were hiding in their boxes, possibly from the hordes of school children, but once Laura and John wandered off to look at the monkeyS they emerged.  John and Laura did return, and John spent a period of time watching said panda chomping on bamboo .... although he devoted a proportion of his time to saying 'no' to other children and trying to enforce a monopoly (jus) over watching the pandas.

Having watched the pandas we decided it was time to go and get something to eat. It was at this moment disaster struck; Laura took John for a change, returning with John, a pram, and a pram wheel. The MacLaren had come to the end of the metaphorical road and it's wheel had fallen off.  After a brief period involving the wheel, the pram, a concrete plinth, and my fist, the pram was judged well and truly knackered.  We trotted on, the wheel falling off every hundred metres or so, and took in the rest of the sights.

Water baby

Yesterday was  a water themed day for mummy and john.  With Dave off in meetings, we headed down to the sea aquarium back on the "state of fun" island of Sentosa where fun is obligatory and so fun we had.  Slightly dozy john still suffering from jet lag perked up enormously when seeing the first tank of fish - along the side of one wall.

Multi coloured fish, sharks, beautiful drifting jelly fish and dolphins impressed him and he  tapped the glass enthusiastically before eagerly running off.  Felt slightly bad mid way through for buying a tuna fish sandwich - given its fishy friends were swimming around us - for john but when the boy's gotta eat, who can deny him?!

After a speedy aquarium tour, including a game   of peekaboo in the loos, john and I headed out taking a monorail train back over to the mainland and into a shopping centre called Vigo city.  Feeling peckish, I went straight into a food court as was craving sushi ( again tinge of guilt given we'd just left the aquarium) but with no sign of Japanese I looked for some quick snacks to keep john occupied and settled on a piece of carrot cake and a sesame bun.... Well I've never had a carrot cake that was fried on the outside and contained some kind of fish on the inside!!

John happy nibbling at some kind of meat ball he'd found in the sesame bun, we went to the next floor of Vigo city to find a fortuitously located restaurant called sushi tei- bingo!  John and I were given a fabulous table over looking the water, played at making funny faces with straws and tucked into tuna sashimi and salmon/ avocado ( and a load of other stuff) sushi rolls.  Delicious particularly with my delight lunch companion.

Within minutes of leaving, john was fast asleep so I indulged in some shopping, iced coffee and then a taxi ride ( love Singapore with its super cheap taxis) back to the simo's for swim fun with john who has become completely fearless when it comes to water - jumping in as often as he can!  Am already think ahead to the under 5 triathlon series!

Whilst Dave put john to bed after a big dinner - he really must have been tired, I made the most of the deserted 50m swimming pool at the bottom of the condo - just perfect😀

As ever getting john to sleep became an impossible task but Mel, the lovely housekeeper with the simos, offered to stay in with him and apparently, he was asleep in non time....

Meanwhile we went out for dinner with Jayde and Martin to a rooftop Indian followed by drinks on another roof top in the lantern bar ( note to self - another beautiful looking swimming pool)

Today, Wednesday has been another great day with a trip to the zoo, afternoon tea and more fun in the pool.  My little water baby's latest trick is to repeatedly put his head under water- never quite sure if he has the strength to lift his head back up!

The last few days

It's been a busy few days for the family, and now we are in our hotel in Happy Valley, Hong Kong.

Since Monday we've been all over Singapore - most notably up to the zoo, as well as taking tea in the Fullerton (a hotel made out of the old GPO in the centre of town, as well as eating well and going swimming!

Here's John exploring the zoo - and eventually finding an Oranutang:

As the week rolled on the girls became increasingly fond of John - although they also gave him some salutary lessons in sharing (by waving items he wanted out of his reach), and providing him with toys when daddy said he didn't want them ("please Erin, John's asleep - he doesn't want a pillow or a toy car right now" etc.).

On our last night at Simpson Towers, once Martyn had finished with his stories from his part in the Global War on Terror, he treated to some of his experiences of Korea.  Apparently the guides love it when you tell them the military parades in the North 'are by far the best thing you have ever seen', but then are less keen on hearing that you are of the opinion the US Army will steamroller them in about two weeks, no matter how good they are at marching in time.  We left with a long list of things to see and do in the South (John lives near to the worlds largest car plant apparently).

Flight from Changi at 0950 this morning - John was reasonable well behaved up until bedtime!  He delighted the staff and diners in the Times Square restaurant website in, and I learned how to tell people I am vegetarian.  Plus no blue rice this time.

I'll sign off with a lovely picture of John not paying attention to  a 100 plus year old

The Haze

So it turns out the Indonesians aren't very good at fighting forest fires - either because they don't have the capability to do so, or possibly (according to some people I have met) because they are convenient ways of clearing prior to the plantations moving in.  Whatever the case, Singapore is suffering from a haze.  It's unhealthy, and it's hanging around.  The answer seems to be: stay indoors, close the windows, and switch the air conditioning on.

We saw a couple of my friends yesterday - having spent close to four hours in the Hilton buffet breakfast (you have to get your $30 worth!) - Ben and Drummond. Ben did us a halloumi barbecue and we met new wife Kate; John spent the afternoon confusing toy cars with expensive scale replicas.      There was also a hilarious reinterpretation of a two tier coffee coffee table as a baby table and chair.

We moved on to Drummonds, which sat on Slim Barracks Road, surrounded by what are colloquially  known as 'black and whites' - old military housing which is now conserved (insofar as if you dig a pool or install air conditioning, you fill it in / remove it when you move out).  A mix of Chinese superstition and these ridiculous conditions mean most of the housing lies fallow).  Drummond, Sarah and Jimmy took us down the greenway - the track bed of the former Malaysian railway which the Singaporeans have gleefully pulled up post-Federation settlement agreements.  Apparently they were worried about terrorists.

We departed Wessex by taxi for the Simpson's at 1730 - as we approached we realised the move of condo had never come to pass.  Whilst mummy put John to bed, I went to drink beer with Martyn so we could complain about various past members of the regiment.

On daddy's return he discovered John was not in the mood for sleeping.  Whilst we ate curry, John helped serve if and did some running around.  A second attempt to go to bed started at half ten.  Apparently I was snoring, and Laura had to watch two episodes of In The Night Garden and three episodes of Pepper Pig; then the Calpol was deployed.  I do vaguely remember some screaming (which was allegedly continuous for more than an hour).

I woke up this morning - partly because of my alarm and partially because John had collected all the sheet underneath him.  Breakfast, then a journey down to Port Of Lost Wonder - in the hilariously named State of Fun in Sentosa.  Elliot and Erin accompanied us and provided a running commentary on everything that was happening.

John is struggling with the heat (/pollution) but was okay once he got in the water around one of the biggest play frames I have ever seen - in the shape of a pirate ship (see picture).

We ran around it for a couple of hours - John becoming an increasing fascination for the two girls as the afternoon progressed.

We came back to the flat around 3pm and went back into the pool for some bumping and jumping around (ask Laura for the photos)

Now Martyn and Jayde are back from work, so sitting down for dinner provided by Mel (hopefully it's great given we took the girls off her hands for three hours earlier!

Changi travels

It's 5am in Singapore .... For our bodies it's another, undefinable, hour.  We landed around 4pm local time on Saturday, following John's first ever long haul flight.

Our adventure started at 5 on Friday night - I came home from work to collect John and Laura, and we headed down to Heathrow via the underground and train.  A quick repack at the airport (we decided the Littlelife carrier would be better than the stroller around Heathrow), then our bags were gone and we headed to a restaurant for dinner.

John's bedtime came and went, and he remained in good spirits.  There were no delays at the gate, but we did ignore the 'board first' instructions so we could meet other travelers with babies and run off the final elements of the day's energy.

I sat behind Laura on the flight; Laura sat with two other parents with a very advanced 12 month old called Chloe.  She gave John a big hug when she met him, which left him nonplussed.  John was well behaved for the whole twelve hours - the same cannot be said for Chloe.  Singapore Airways has some high quality children's TV shows, as well as the all important touchscreen which John bashed away at from his bassinet. I managed to get through the whole of Mad Max before falling asleep.  John attracted the usual crowd of fans on the flight.

We took a taxi up to the Hilton on Orchard Road when we arrived, and decided to go straight into evening routine. There was a temporary moment of panic after it turned out Laura had already checked in for her five day stay last week .... but luckily the lady behind the desk found Laura was on there as 'Boyd Laura'.

By this point there is no doubt John was wondering why the fun in the middle of the day was curtailed - but he played along.  We all went out to the Ion Mall four our dinner, where we went to a Thai place because it had a children's menu.  The highlight though was my rice:

We came back, did bath time, then all clambered into the king size.  John has done a good job of taking the hint, giving his mother most of the night to sleep (with the odd attempt to climb over her and/or go to sleep lying on top of her.

I'll be waking the gang in the next hour and taking them down to breakfast.  As things stand, I suspect I am going tone the one struggling the most later this evening - I was woken by banging in the corridor about four hours ago, and have managed dozing at best since!