1 January 2008 ends

SPACERSPACERSPACER It was a pretty lazy day in Chez Narly today - I got bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast and then after some messing around we ended up having lunch at the Press Room on Hollywood Road with Mark and Boo (who live downstairs - Mark works with Rachel).  Had a good feed and subsequently am replacing dinner with a mini Toblerone (it's healthy because I say so).  Didn't achieve a lot really, although go this photo on the street. I don't like the edits - might try and fix it later.  It was a guy and his wife roasting and chestnuts and selling them in Sheung Wan.  Pretty cool:

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Oh - we've booked flights for NZ. M&E we're leaving on 21 March and arriving in Auckland on 22nd - so your wedding had better be on the 28th...  We're there until the end of Easter weekend, and will hit Wellington for a bit in the middle somewhere.

Nothing left to report - but had to share this great "spot the differenct picture". Can you tell what the University of Wisconsin belatedly added to the cover of their undergraduate application form in 2001/2?

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  [Edit - stupid website clock is set to US time... I'll fix it later] It's still a bit weird waking up to a cold New Year's Day, after spending most of them in a New Zealand summer. I've only ever had one white Christmas, and that was in Canada when I was living there in 1996/7. Shyte that was colllld. We had a lovely night at Paul and Leslie's last night - they put on some great food and we saw a load of their friends who we met at their Australia Day BBQ earlier in the year.  We were the only childless ones there, so got lots of good advice about babymaking in Hong Kong (including quite a handy warning from one guy who got hit with a HK$350,000 bill after his new son spent 10 days in intensive care - must check our insurance terms and conditions).

Lazy morning here - I woke up early, but couldn' force myself to leave the bed as Poppycat was snuggled up next to me under the blanket.  Rachel just made us bacon, eggs and hash browns, and we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves.  Called and texted everyone we wanted to, and now we're listening to a NZ radio station (thanks to the clever old internet and Wifi iPod magic).

Rachel has recalculated her due date and seems to think it has slid forward by a few days - now 16 January.  Who knows when the little mite will turn up.

A few photos of the boys that I took this morning (I only took them so that I could upload something):

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And before I shoot off, Happy Birthday to Tim Ma(n)hood who turned 33 yesterday.  Here's an old photo to revive some bad memories Timbo (from Taupo golf weekend in 2006 - that was the year where I managed to have a sleep between dinner and dessert):

random sunday night facts

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1) Rachel doesn't have to go to work again until July

2) I have to go to work in the morning

3) Cracker (aka evilspawnofnarly) now weighs 6 pounds (just over 2 kilos)

4) Cracker (aka evilspawnofnarly) is due to grace us with his/her presence in 3 weeks

5) Although we don't actually know it, I firmly believe - as does 99% of the HK population that has seen Rachel - that Cracker is a boy

6) There is absolutely no scientific basis for 5)

7) The names are pretty much sorted.

That's all really - I'm about to go to bed, so I leave you with a photo of little Freddie Cary sleeping peacefully under the NZ wool blanket that Uncle Narly and Aunty Rachel sent him (thanks to Daddy Cary for sending us the photo!)

A few more photos from today and last night

Nothing to report - the Challis clan have successfully departed and as I type this, they should be sitting on a plane waiting to take off.  We had a lovely dinner at the Peak Lookout Restaurant last night - just the grownups - and this morning the clan came upstairs for coffee, banana, biscuits and a bit of TV action. Now it's just the four of us again (I include the cats in my calculations).  Rachel is lying on the couch reading, and I'm just sorting through some photos from the last few days. Nothing planned for the next few days, although we have a few baby things to purchase.

I had a play with the baby monitor yesterday, and it appears that the only thing it can't do is make my coffee in the morning. There is this super weird 'tic' feature on it that makes a little 'tic' whenever the movement sensor goes off - the same movement sensor that screams like a banshee if it detects no movement for 10 seconds.  Hell it's loud.

Right - I'll leave you with some pictures.  First two are of course Robin and Kirstie at the restaurant last night, and the last three are Arabella and Paddy in various positions while watching cartoons on tv this morning.  I love the huggy one - Paddy is transfixed with some stoner running about in a colourful costume, while all Bella wants to do is give her big brother a hug.  Sweet...

getting closer to christmas

...and that deserves christmas cat photos, and a random photo of a cool coloured cup (from FUEL espresso, here in HK). but before that, big news. just kidding - nothing really going on at the moment.  challis clan arrives on saturday night and before that we have a whole lot of nothing going on. shopping is almost done and rachel is down to 5 days of work before her extended "vacation".  we got woken up by baby crying in the apartment upstairs at 6am this morning. good practice i suppose...

as i type this, rachel is lying on the couch with poppycat purring away (pop is doing the purring, not rachel), and ben is skulking around the room, looking for attention.

right, those photos i was talking about:

ben's remarkable aim

our apartment has about 1800 square foot of space we have three main bedrooms, a "half" bedroom and bathroom out the back, and two main bathrooms.

the lounge is large and joins onto the dining room.

for two cats, it's practically a luxury penthouse - there is sooo much space for them to run around in and play.

so, when ben decided that after breakfast he needed a little bit of gut purging, where in this vast expanse of apartment did he choose to vomit?

in rachel's handbag.

i love that cat so much.

the belcher

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i currently live in a culture where blowing one's nose is considered to be gross - but chewing loudly, chewing with your mouth open, sniffing 40 times in 2 minutes and burping are absolutely fine.

i of course struggle with this weirdness, but am particularly struggling someone burping outside my door at work.

every three minutes for the last week or so, this colleague of mine (let's called her belchy wang) lets out a loud and proud burp.  no apparent reason, she just does it. ALL DAY LONG. she doesn't even look vaguely embarrassed. just sits at her desk and burps. and burps. and burps.

i am at a loss as to what to do.  my current strategy is to close my door, gently rock myself to sleep in fetal position, whilst praying that belchy wang's little spasms will soon come to a halt. i am not a violent person, but i'd consider throwing furniture at her if it stopped the burping.

EDIT: in the time it took to type this, she burped three more times.  i kid you not.

brrrrrrrrrrrrr

the temperature dipped below 20 degress celsius today, and the wind has picked up to around 8km/h, so i fully expect the local folks to be wrapped up in layer upon layer of wool, down clothing, fluffy pom-pom hats and - strangely - shorts accompanied by long velvet boots with all manner of dangly things wobbling off them. i also predict that the Hello Kitty store will completely sell out of their nose-warmers by the end of the day.

a few photos from saturday in the sun at discovery bay

today we're on a mission to go and get me some new sneakers (i'm going for some chucks this winter) and we have a few things to get from stanley market - it's a nice day, so it should be ok out there. had a great day yesterday in the sun at discovery bay. saw some of lisa's awesome jewellery, and then hung with the DB clan (sue, steve, calvin, rachel, helen and pete) and their respective sproglings.  here are some photos from the afternoon / evening of the little people (hermione, kiri, che, sue & che, sue & hermione):

i promise not to build a nuclear weapon using my iphone

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i had never spotted this before - the EULA (end user license agreement) that flashes up before you update your iphone software.  it makes me promise that i won't use it to make nuclear missiles or chemical or biological weapons.  that's right, nuclear missiles or chemical or biological weapons.  seriously, it's a great phone - but what the hell is inside it?  and to think i was once concerned with radiation from cellphones. click on the pic to see it bigger:

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just a quiet saturday.  i just had the afro trimmed, we walked down to the post office to pick up another birthday present for rachel, and we're heading to mark and boo's tonight for dinner (that's 5 floors down in the same building we live in, so it's a nice easy commute in the elevator)

financial bailout of the automotive industry in usa

this whole financial bailout thing is quite interesting to watch, especially from the point of view of someone who is fiscally and economically clueless (that would be me). things that don't really make sense to me include GWB's systematic removal of any incentive for these car makers to develop more fuel-efficient vehicles (surely nothing to do with his oil buddies, nooooo), and the fact that they've made the same sh*tty gas guzzlers for years and years and years - and didn't think to change things when oil was a whopping US$140 per barrel. and now they act surprised as they find themselves in a financial poopoo.

still, the new obama-led presidency has said that any bailout will require a commitment to invest a considerable amount of money into fuel-efficiency and alternative fuel technologies, which appears to be a very sensible strategy.

anyway, something popped up on the internet tubes this morning that made me wonder whether the bozos in charge of the auto industries actually have any clue at all about anything.

the three ceos of ford, GM and chrysler had to go begging to washington for a bit of moolah. ford pointed out that they had closed 17 plants and had made made 51,000 people redundant over the last three years. money was tight and they are struggling.

in these tough times, how did each of these three ceos get from detroit to washington?  by private jets of course.  US$288 on economy, US$837 on first class, but us$20,000 by private jet. unbelievable.

the sad thing is, if these morons don't get the money, they're not the ones who get stung. they all have lovely redundancy and bonus packages, pensions and golden handshakes.  and if they do get the money... well, the private jets continue to fly.

morons having children

no, not us! if antenatal classes have taught me anything, it's that some hong kong expats are so mind numbingly self centred and clueless that it makes me want to throw furniture at them.

last night was the return of annoying bint (henceforth referred to as "bint"). some of the gems that she came out with last night:

midwife: "there are shared rooms, private rooms and there are vip rooms as well" bint: "is there a price list for each of them?" midwife: "yes. the private rooms and vip rooms are very expensive though" bint: [without a trace of self awareness or humour] "i'm worth it"

she then proceeded to head over to the wall mirror and pick her zits. seriously.

then during the maternity ward tour, we were shown a shared recuperation room (4 beds with separating curtains). As bint walked in, she uttered a very loud "not interested."

And as she walked out: "i'm not sharing with anyone."

question time with the doctor was equally fun: "i don't want any pain. on a pain scale of 1 to 10, i'm a minus 1". closely followed by: "if i can only get an epidural when i'm 5cm dilated, how am i going to get from 1cm to 5cm without pain?"

i was tempted to ask her if she had considered adoption - although lack of pain aside, i really don't think it's fair to introduce more of her moronic gene pool to the world.

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on a cheerier note - it's rachel's birthday today! 30 years old!

for this auspicious occasion, she's getting an eternity ring (named as such because that's how long it takes to pay the thing off). I'll admit it's shiny and sparkly  but from what i can tell it can't check email or surf the net, so i'm not really sure what it actually does.  also, we are heading to bangkok tomorrow for a nice long weekend "final solo holiday" and 30th celebration.

she also got an album of photos from our time in hong kong (from me) and some lovely pyjamas (from patrick and barbara). there are other presents which are reportedly somewhere between here and various nz post offices.

i must get off the computer now, as rachel wants to conduct her morning "sky showbiz" check and see what the celebrities are wearing, who is shagging who, and which of them has adopted an african child this week.

sunday night

aaah, almost the end of the weekend.  damn.  had a busy day today - i played golf with john in the morning:

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then we headed to kennedy town to sort out some cushions for a chair in cracker's room (cracker = all rachel ate in the first trimester = baby's nickname), shot over to kowloon to investigate rachel's 30th birthday present (i'm not telling - rachel picked it out, but you'll have to ask her if you want to know...), then i headed to fuel espresso for a coffee with sanjay, chantel and co while rach got her toenails painted (or whatever they do to toes and feet at a pedicure).  had a quiet night at home and watched the movie "run fat boy run" - which was quite hilarious.

took a few photos of el rats this weekend as well - rachel and poppy, ben looking at me on the balcony wondering how i got out there, and ben reclining on the floor:

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not much else - oh, there was this effort in the gym last week after my run on friday.  too sexy for my shirt:

busy week this week - we have an appointment with the unbornbabydoctor on tuesday, then i have work website profile photos on wednesday, then thursday is rachel's 30th birthday - and then on friday we take off to bangkok for a long weekend (partly for rachel's birthday and partly for the "last holiday" for a long, long, long time...

saturday morning laziness

ola!  what a week - barack obama voted president-elect of the united states of whatever george bush left behind, and i managed four lunchtime gym visits (i skipped the day of the us elections - i might have been watching coverage at my desk). we are cruising along in the runup to xmas.  xmas day we have the challis clan here for dinner - and that means ALL of them:  robin, kirstie, paddy, arabella, kate and aurora.  it'll be a busy day, but it will be fantastic - funnily enough the challis clan came for xmas lunch in 2005, and at that time it was just robin, kirstie and 'bump'!

today we've got cam, carolin and little sam coming down for some coffee and pastries - we haven't seen them for ages, and then we're heading out to discovery bay to sort out some employment papers for charise. a quiet night tonight - sweet.

tomorrow john s and i are heading out early morning to nine eagles golf course by the airport for a cheeky 9 holes.  after that, not sure what the day holds.  i have my eye on a new camera lens...  of course it's absolutely necessary to buy this lens in order to photograph brand new baby. not buying it effectively means that i don't love the child.  so i have to buy it, see?

next week is rachel's 30th birthday (thursday, in case you've forgotten), and we're heading to bangkok for 4 days on friday (it's not very far away).

time to go and clean myself up and get the coffee ready.  a few photos which i may or may not have uploaded before (click on them to enlarge...)

bloody airlines

just looking at the cost of getting home with mini-narly next march, and it annoys me greatly to see that air new zealand can get me to london for HK$2050 HK$4080 plus various taxes, but the best offer i can get to go to new zealand is HK$6500 plus (loads of) taxes.  it's amazing what a complete lack of competition can do for the price of flying. there are more than 15 airlines flying from hong kong to london direct.  and how many fly directly to new zealand? two - air new zealand and cathay pacific.

NB - Corrected the numbers. The Air NZ site had a one way deal of HK$2040, but still - $2000+ per person extra to get back to New Zealand is completely kumara-sucking.

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us elections this week.  is it possible for them to screw things up for the third time in a row? probably.

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post-bledisloe

great night last night - the all blacks won 19-14 (although in fairness that pass that led to mccaw's try was painfully forward, so 14-14 would have been a fair ending).  we had a fun time in the stands, with great seats - other than the plonker australian a few seats behind us who simply could not shut up the whole night with his painfully ignorant take on the ref's multitudes of crap decisions. met up with mark pearce (margot's husband) and his work colleague andrew and heading to TOTT (the humbly named restaurant "talk of the town") in causeway bay to meet one of their clients. turns out that TOTT was in the hotel where the all blacks were staying, so on the way out, mark managed to shake Keven Mealamu's hand and congratulate him on a great result!  had a great meal and then called it a night fairly early, as mark and andrew were pretty jetlagged.

lazy day today, we read the paper and mucked around this morning and then mark popped over for an afternoon bbq (and to drop off our basinet that he had kindly dragged over from new zealand). had a nice relaxing afternoon with sausages, steak and beers.

and now i have to go back to work tomorrow.  bah.

here is a shot of our sunset, taken about an hour ago from our little balcony:

hedge fund fight night

although i was feeling a tad stomachey, i headed along to the 2nd annual hedge fund fight night in causeway bay last night.  alex was one of the 12 fighters and was second to last fight - the business end of the evening. ended up having a great time - we had a good bunch of people on our table and although i'm not really into boxing or fighting or anything like martial arts, i did enjoy myself. the food was crackingly good and i took much pleasure in destroying a plate of lamb shank and garlic mash in record time.

alex's fight went the full three rounds and in the end he lost on points.  it was a great fight - i thought he took the second and lost the first and third, but the other guy did land a few more blows on alex and the result seemed to be fair.

the evening ended up finishing around midnight, and after dropping alex off at a pub, i scuttled home to see rach and the cats.  ben kindly woke me at 6:30am demanding a pat and fresh bowl of food.  brat.

some photos from the evening (click for bigger size):

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weirdly, a handful of visitors crashed our function - recognise any of them?