Rest in peace buddy. You were a sometimes-awful cat, but you were our sometimes-awful cat and we loved you all the same. We will miss you and your peculiar ways.
Ben K-K, March 2005 - 17 October 2010
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Snaggletooth
Weekend brunch and other randomness
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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Poppycat
Sometimes it's not just about George... .
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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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A random assortment of Bunky shots. And a cat.
Just a few photos from the last few days - the weather has been a bit rotten, so we haven't really ventured outside at all. I did end up buying myself a cheap softbox and lightstand yesterday, so I might start being a little bit more adventurous with lighting (I might have to get poor little George some sunglasses). .
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Domestic terrorism
Ben simply can't work out why George isn't afraid of him. Perhaps it's because George would quite like to eat Ben. This is from Rachel's phone this morning:
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Poppy is cold | Every photo needs a cat
It got a bit cold today - there's a cold snap that will apparently last until early next week. Just how cold was it? You should have asked Poppycat this morning: .
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And on a completely different subject (one that annoys Rachel), I discovered an application for my phone that does something absolutely unique and awesome to photos. It adds cats.
Seriously, I can't count the number of times I've looked at a photo and thought to myself "That photo really needs a cat". Now, thanks to the folks at CatPaint, I can add cats to any photo on my phone. Seriously, it's the best cat-based photo editing program I've ever seen. Some examples of my work this evening:
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I know what you're thinking: "Awesome."
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Random photos from Chez Bunky this morning
A few photos from the morning routine of the Bunkmeister. Firstly, his mummy decided that his eating was getting a little bit... how do we say... "animated", and his clothes were coming off pretty badly after mealtimes (especially mealtimes involving sauces). An afternoon trip to Ikea yielded a number of new mass-produced and flatpacked Swedish goods, one of which was some sort of overcoat which was bound to make Bunky look like either an air traffic controller or a construction worker. The aim of the bright green jacket was of course to protect his blessed-by-Nepalese-monks-pure-merino clothing underneath. I guess it worked, but someone was less than impressed with its first outing: .
Ok, looking a bit too much like a Grandpa Paddy cycling jacket, but so far so good...
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...and not enjoying it as much.
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And here are a few random ones from crawling time - he's just discovered the gate between the lounge and the kitchen (we have an open pantry in there, so to minimise the risk of him ending up under a pile of tinned tomatoes and blending appliances, he's not allowed in the kichen. Like his Daddy.)
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Note the puppy dog eyes on the bottom right. It didn't work (it was a close one though)
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And I leave you with one of Osama Ben-Jamin. Discovered this week that despite him treating May like his mortal enemy, whenever George cries, Ben comes running and miaowing. It's quite sweet (but he's still a little brat).
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A few random phone photos and a pre-breakfast window stare
A few completely random photos from my phone: .
I took this in near darkness - it's Ben and Poppy on the back of our couch. Surely this can't be comfortable for poor little squashed Pop?
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I couldn't resist - this is from one of the toilets of the Cathay Pacific plane we flew on over the weekend. Is "choke" really the word they were looking for?
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This is from this morning - it looks posed, but I promise it wasn't. I just wanted Rachel to hold still, and for some reason they both ended up looking out the window. It doesn't take much to get George's attention (birds, ships, pieces of toast and random dust particles are all rather exciting to him), but I'm not entirely sure what Rachel was looking at...
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A few random long weekend photos
We've had an up and down weekend - Raspy McCoughypants had a tough Saturday, but seems to have shaken off the worst of his chest gloop. He's in pretty awesome spirits, and as I type this he's fast asleep (touch wood - last night he screamed from 10pm to 11pm). He's had a full on weekend so far, with brunch at the Press Room on Saturday morning and then Sam B's birthday party today. Tomorrow's junk trip has been cancelled, but seeing as this weekend is "Grave Sweeping" weekend, we'll still try and get out somewhere (our street is next to the cemetery and looks like Disneyland on Grave Sweeping days. I've got some random photos - I've got a pile more (especially of Sarah K and Bunky yesterday), but here are the ones I've had a pick through so far:
A sight we need to get used to - Bunky wandering the lounge and dining floor area.
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George and Rachel observing pass-the-parcel at Sam's party
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The boys asleep in the spare room. Seriously, I don't know how Ben sleeps like that.
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The little man just before his bath tonight
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This cat is hiding from a child
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Weekend photos
We jumped on the Star Ferry with the Binningtons yesterday, and although Bunky was feeling a little under the weather (and still is), we had a great time and he even managed a 90 minute snooze while we lunched at Mark and Emma's. Last night was Diwali night, and our building had its usual Indian buffet and drinks downstairs - delicious. Not a late night, but oooomph I was full by the time we left. Today has been a quiet one, as Bunky is still pretty clogged up and grumpy. Hopefully he'll be over it in a few days.
Anyway, a few photos from the weekend so far:
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The boys spending the afternoon in the stereo cabinet (it provides valuable warmth to their butts). The little NEC modem is what beams low quality, overly censored, five year old substandard television programmes chock full of ridiculous advertisements straight to our television. Ah, technology.
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Rachel and George outside the TST Star Ferry terminal
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This morning, just before I woke him from his post-breakfast nap
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Enjoying his delicious nectarine
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He's either concentrating on complicated maths problems, or filling his nappy. You guess which.
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Fort Bunky, Fat Ben
A few photos from today - firstly Fort Bunky. A complicated arrangement of cushions and pillows designed to prevent him from falling off the bed while we get changed in the morning:
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Next, a little bit of Fat Ben - happily snoozing away in the lounge. Seriously, this is how he sleeps:
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Also, I tweaked the website behind the scenes - now iPhone / iPod Touch / Google Android people will see a mobile-optimised version of the site. I don't think I needed to do it, but it was quick, easy and free. So I figured I may as well do it. The website will look a bit like this - but at the bottom you'll have the option to view the site in its normal format:
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I've also tried to turn on comments for individual posts. I'm still ironing out some kinks, but the comment boxes should be under all new posts from now on. Use them wisely (Note that the very first comment you leave on the site automatically goes into a moderation queue - after that first "approved" comment, your comments show up straight away).
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The cat in the hat (box)
I was cleaning out the hat box this afternoon (it's home to a lot of my gadgets and cords), when Ben rocked along and decided to "help"
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A mixed bag
A strange mix of photos: One of Ben asleep on the couch this morning, one of Bunky wearing his now obligatory blueberry facemask, and one from Kennedy Town (taken from the car):
Friday morning photos
Featuring the photography-neglected kittens:
A few photos from bathtime tonight
...and a random one that was on the memory card from this morning. The view from our spare room (looking out over Lamma Island). That's Ben in the foreground:
Cheap props, feline supervision
Have changed the format of the website so that I can upload slightly larger photos of the little monkey. Still a few tweaks to do, but for the most part everything should be working fine. The contact page has disappeared, but I'll reupload it soon. A few photos from this morning - Rachel finished a roll of wrapping paper, and Bunky decided to hone his Jedi skills with the empty roll. Ben looked on unimpressed.
Random weekend photos
