Narcissism Pt 2 | Why people pirate movies

Rachel took this photo of the little man this morning - it seems he has developed a bit of a crush... on himself: .

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And on a completely unrelated note, I stumbled across this graphic this morning.  Having sat through annoying unskippable (loud) movie previews and pointless FBI warnings many, many times over the last few years, this is a nice reminder of why people are reluctant to fork out for DVDs these days:

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New hoodie

Modelling the birthday hoodie that Aunty Kristine and Uncle Josh gave him a few weeks ago. In the full length photos, he is (of course) dancing to the soulful tunes of Handy Manny, the Spanish Disney Tool Guy. .

Don't look too closely at this photo.  You might see his "morning hair dreadlocks".

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"Let's see... do we have all the tools?  Come on tools - LET'S DANCE!"  (Seriously, G's tool truck actually says this.  Someone at Disney is on crack)

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Yes George, another photo.  Smile or you don't get any lunch.

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Weekend randomness

Nothing much to report other than the weather being horrible and Bunky having a bit of a cold.  Here's a compilation of random photos from the last few days (I'm still working out how to edit photos properly with Aperture, so forgive me if the colours look a bit wonky). .

Clockwise from left:  The gorgeous flowers from Aunty Kristine and Uncle Josh, George inspecting the contents of his toy box, George about to give the sleeping cats a rude awakening...

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Rachel and George on our walk down the hill this morning

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L: George watching a bit of TV from the comfort of Rachel's lap /  R: Ben hanging out on top of the kitchen cupboards

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Hong Kong parks:  It's all about having fun

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What? The City of Las Vegetables?

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Narcissism (and other morning photos)

What could possibly be keeping George's attention? He's absolutely fascinated with something: .

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...silly question.  He is of course admiring himself on the computer screensaver:

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Some other random photos from this morning:

Getting a closer look at... himself

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Just chilling, leaning on the computer chair

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Standing, with a little help from Rachel

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And finally my favourite photos from the morning - see what happens when he finds sheepskin....

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Swings and slides

The one person eating machine had a fun day today - morning was the usual "how many lego blocks can I fit in my mouth" shenanigans and then we headed down the hill to play on the swings and slides in the yukky polluted Hong Kong air. Rachel had to head out at lunch, so it was boys' morning at the apartment. I had heard that George had been eating enough to feed a rugby team, but I hadn't seen him lunching for a week or so. Seriously, the boy can eat.

In the presence of his daddy, George ate two sausages, part of an avocado, some cheese, a load of yoghurt, some blueberries, some strawberries, some milk and a bit of pear. I was gobsmacked at the amount of food that disappeared down his waiting gob.

In the afternoon I ended up taking him downstairs where the children of the building tend to congregate. He's a bit young to really do anything apart from eat a toy and crawl around watching the big kids, but he had a great time cuddling up to his favourite golden retriever, Trostsky.

It's almost dinnertime here, so I'll leave you with a few photos of the Bunkmeister and his mummy down at the playground.

But... before I go - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY JACQ! (Each of those words is a separate hyperlink, by the way...)

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Photos: Morning lounge, evening bath

A few more random photos from around and about the house - we did actually get out this weekend, but apart from the photo that Sam took yesterday, I haven't got much to show for it. Ooops. .

Ben having a tough old time on Sunday afternoon

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The little monkey in the lounge this morning. Whenever he spots something made of sheepskin or anything that vaguely resembles a pillow, he drops his little head, puts his finger in his mouth... and has a little rest.  It really is the cutest thing ever.

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In the bath tonight - playing the "throw toy out of the bath and look pleased with myself" game

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He covers quite a lot of ground during bathtime...

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Guest photographer

This photo was taken by little Sam Binnington - aged 3 and a bit (we had lunch with him and the rest of the Binnington Clan on Ssaturday, and I let Sam take a few photos with my camera): .

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He did a pretty good job, huh?

Also, looking at the sheer awesomeness of my afro, I'm guessing my next haircut isn't too far away - although I could probably blame this one on the wide angle lens.

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What goes up must come down

Someone rather famous once said that any idiot could get up Mount Everest - but it took real skill to get back down again. George can now pull himself to standing, as you can see in the photo sequence below.  Unfortunately, getting back down to his backside is the real challenge.  At the moment he just pulls himself up and then wails until someone helps him back onto his bum.

Unsurprisingly, this approach does seem to be working for the little tyrant...

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Not much else going on really - here are a few shots I took this morning of the little man playing on his birthday car from Suki and Queenie.  He's not quite self-powered yet; he can go backwards with no problem, but moving forward is a bit of a challenge at the moment.  He does love riding it though:

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Bath shenanigans

George's latest bathtime game is taking whatever he's playing with and helpfully passing throwing it over the edge to me or Rachel (it gets a bit messy when the plaything is a half full plastic cup of water...) .

Rachel and George

Sending it over the edge

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Post-bathtime snap | G's birthday drinks | Puppy love

This one was from an hour ago, just after G's bath. He's giving me the "Am I about to get a Hairy Maclary story soon?" look (yes - he got one about 5 minutes later) .

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And here's a photo (for posterity) of the Chateauneuf Du Pape before we demolished it.  Richard B gave it (with two gorgeous red wine glasses) to us on our wedding day in 2007, and we were saving it for a special occasion.  I decanted it yesterday afternoon, and at 7pm last night - exactly one year after George was born - we toasted the little man.  Yup - that's Ben in the background.

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And here's a sequence taken this afternoon, as George flirted with one of his Hong Kong girlfriends, Sophia:

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The Birthday Boy!

One year old today! The little man has had a ball playing with his new toys this morning: .

Playing with the trolley and blocks from Godparents Ross and Ang

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Playing on the toolman's truck (from Aunty Suki and Aunty Queenie at Daddy's work)

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Mummy insisted on a family photo. Yes, we're in pyjamas.

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Cruisin' in his new wheels

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A few leftover phone photos

The first was taken yesterday when Bunky came to visit me at work, and the rest are randoms from New Zealand: .

Playing on the grass outside my work

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A random church that we walked past (in Havelock North)

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In the plane from Napier to Auckland (that's George's hair on the left...)

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Aunty Momo and Rachel talking in the kitchen while G busies himself with Lego

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Reading time with Paddy

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Early birthday drinks

Although Bunky doesn't turn one for another nine days, we decided to have a few early birthday drinks (and cake) for him today in Auckland.  The little piglet managed to scoff cake, part of a sausage roll, some rice cracker, more cake (with cream) and he washed that all down with some delicious leaves from the back yard. Here are a few from the day - once again without the benefit of any Photoshop magic...

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A few more photos from New Zealand

As much as I miss using Photoshop, I couldn't resist uploading a few photos from our last few weeks of touring.  We hit both Wellington and Hawkes Bay (both very briefly) and we're now back in Auckland, dreading our return to Hong Kong on Monday night. Eeeek. iPhoto has seemed to have done a pretty decent job of tweaking the RAW images and exporting them to jpeg - I may have another go when back in Hong Kong, but for the time being... here you go:

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Taken from the Koru Lounge at Auckland Airport, waiting for our Wellington flight

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A (fairly rotten quality) photo of George being stalked by his grandmother

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A dog named "Dog"

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George in a pool with (one of) his Godfather(s) and Lucy

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Enjoying a swing push from his mate Ella

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Uncle Godfather Ross

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Dinnertime with Lucy

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Jump time with Ella

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Watching an outdoor movie at the Blackbarn Vineyard Amphitheatre

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Lucy braving the sprinkler

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Ella taking on the sprinkler

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Low humidity = Floppy hair

Despite Uncle Sam's assertions to the contrary, it is rather cold here (maybe our blood has thinned over the years).  With the cold comes an extreme drop in humidity, and with the drop in humidity, the hair of certain household members becomes a little... "floppy": .

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Ok, so the middle one wasn't so floppy, but I threw that in there to show you how he can make plastic objects levitate.  He's clever like that.

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