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The little man came down to the grassy area outside my work, so Philip and I popped downstairs for a coffee and to hang with the G monster for a few minutes. These photos are a bit of a combo effort - Philip (who usually takes photos of weddings) took them on my camera, and I did the computer tweaking at home after work: .
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Can you believe that this photo is 17 years old?! Happy birthday Ross! Much love from the Far East, and in particular much dribbly (and slightly grumpy, if we're being honest this morning) love from your godson. .
Pink bowties and waistcoats with yellow smiley face buttons are going to come back in style. I just know it.
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Stark raving mad dude jumping off a structure at the Galle Fort (we gave him about US$10 to get this photo). He came over and looked at the LCD preview after I took the photo and said "I'm like a bird!"
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George exchanging flowers with Wijey (one of the villa staff in Galle). The flowers were a gorgeous pink, but I struggled to get the colours right when I was editing this - so I went black and white. I'll try again over the weekend. The photo might look a little soft - it wasn't anything I did to the photo... unfortunately the lens was coated in condensation (the camera had been sitting in an air conditioned room and it was 38 degrees Celsius outside)
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Gorgeous little Penny at Sigiriya
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Rachel and George playing on the beach at Galle
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One of the many curry dinners we had on the trip. I ate the equivalent of my bodyweight in poppadoms.
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Charlie watches Tim hurling an old coconut husk back into the sea
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The whole team at the beach in Galle (before anyone asks, George was looking away in every photo I took)
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Unfortunately my editing skills weren't good enough to obscure the occasional glimpse of "Little George"...
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Kirstie and Robin rehearsing for their House & Garden photoshoot
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Rachel and George in the swimming pool at Vil Uyana (Sigiriya)
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Charlie the Explorer at Vil Uyana in Sigiriya
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Arabella and Paddy in Galle
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George in the yard of the Galle villa
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Sarah with Kala's puppy, Jemma
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A group of Sri Lankan sisters (and one brother) on the beach in Galle
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Penny reflecting on life with Rabbit and Taggy (her blanket)
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George with the bathroom scales (again) and having a cuddle with Aunty Sarah in Sigiriya
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Two elephants enjoying a splash in the river at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage (there were another 80-odd elephants just around the corner)
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Bunky and his mother take a walk along the beach in Galle
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I have a load of photos, but plucked out a few to upload before bedtime: .
George leaning on a whale bone in the Galle villa yard
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Doing an elephant jigsaw puzzle with Rachel
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Divebombing: Robin (L) and Tim (R)
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Sunset at the Galle Face Hotel
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George with his new favourite toy (bathroom scales from the hotel room in Colombo)
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I certainly didn't expect it to look like this: .
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We were about to board the Singapore to Colombo flight just after midnight, and who should we bump into at the boarding gate? Mr Alex "Chuck Norris is my homeboy" Bellingham, formerly of Hong Kong and currently of Spain.
Alex was en route to some business meetings in Dubai and was about as surprised as we were at the chance encounter (given that the last time we saw him was when we were farewelling him and the family from Hong Kong in 2009). We had a lovely - but quick - catch up, then boarded for the painfully timed flight (left at 1am Singapore time, arrived in Colombo three and a half hours later at around 2am local time). Alex put on the eyemask, earplugs and passed out... we tried to settle an overtired little boy who spent much of the flight screaming. Oops.
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Yup - that's a lovely cold plunge pool on our doorstep. The Robinsons' villa is identical and is about 10 metres away.
Sorry - most of the photos are on the good camera. Having a great time and eating rather well. George loving exploring new places and sweating like a waterfall :)
We're off to Sri Lanka tomorrow, so unless free wireless is plentiful (highly unlikely), it'll be fairly quiet around here. If I do come across free wireless internet anywhere, I'll try and upload a photo or two of the little man (or beaches, to make you jealous). Back again on the 19th - I'll leave you with a photo of the little chipmunk from this morning :)
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Just in case you've forgotten how brave he was:
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Bunky's words are really coming along. Sort of. A few new ones popped up this week: "Boppy" (Poppy, the cat), "May!" (May, his nanny), "Bye bye", "Ball", "Baaaaaa" (that's "Bath", actually) and "Down" (when he wants to get on the floor). Tonight's pre-bedtime conversation was rather amusing. Some people may find it more amusing than others...
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Me: "George, say Momo? Aunty Momo? Momo?"
George: "Momo. Momo."
Me: "Good boy! Say 'Jane'? 'Jaaaane'"
George: "Nah."
Me: "George, come on - say 'Jane'?"
George: "Naaaah."
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Sorry Aunty Jane. I'm not making it up - your beloved sister was standing right there.
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A few cellphone photos of the Bunkymeister the other day. I got home a little early on Friday, and as I got changed, George took it upon himself to snoop around the drawers and under the bed. Apologies for the quality of these - they were taken on my phone in somewhat crappy light:
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I'll leave you with a few photos of my friend and fellow camera nut, Angelo. On Friday night we wandered around Central taking random photos and playing with different lenses - good fun. I lasted until about 9pm and then came home. Angelo finished up at 4am. I am getting olllllllld.
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LIBRARIAN .
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Just to celebrate the pollution finally leaving us (thanks to a bit of wind and rain), here are a few photos of the harbour. On a nice day, it's pretty hard to beat.
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This was taken from my office. Unfortunately, my view isn't this good - it's mostly trees on the hill next to us. I had to contort myself a bit and use a longer lens (85mm) to get this shot
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Taken from our lounge this morning. Notice the weird panel at the bottom right with the different hue? Rachel broke that window a few years ago with an iron (the shirt-ironing kind of iron, not the golf club kind), and the person that replaced it used glass that didn't quite match the rest of the windows.
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While trying to get a video of George shaking his (peach-resembling) bootie to the video his Grandfather Paddy sent him, I stumbled across this video from a few days ago. Aunty Momo declared on Facebook that she didn't know who the Pixies were. I pulled one of their songs up in iTunes and played it for Rachel. Naturally, George couldn't turn down the opportunity to bust a move - and it ended up a bit like John Travolta meets the Karate Kid:
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After the haircut debacle, the weekend ended up being quite lovely. We ended up having Sunday brunch with Alice, Harry and Mikey at Coast Restaurant, just off the Mid Levels Escalator: .
Don't let the forlorn look fool you. The little piglet got a plateful of delicious mushroom risotto just after this was taken.
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George's main man, Mikey
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The kitchen at Coast. I want heat lamps like this in our kitchen one day. Seriously cool.
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Eating and socialising is clearly rather exhausting.
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A bit of randomness to finish the weekend. Firstly, Ben may act stupid, but he's extremely effective at locating and neutralising heat sources:
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And here's a very good reason why I don't take more photos outside. The World Health Organisation guidelines state that 50 micrograms of particulate material per cubic metre in 24 hours is the safest maximum level that a person should be exposed to. Today, Hong Kong is averaging just under 500 micrograms of particulate material per cubic metre. Yuk. This the Sunday morning view from our lounge window:
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Note the considerable afro-reduction at the back: .
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