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Kristine asked me what the "Valley of Death" was, and in the absence of photographic evidence, I turned to the wonders of MS Paint to show her: .
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I know, I know - I am a supremely talented artist. Signed copies are available on request (they'll be worth a lot one day, especially after I'm dead... which could be sooner than you think, in view of the subject matter of the artwork).
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For someone who understands virtually nothing about politics (I still get policies of the Left and Right confused), I have a morbid fascination for elections. Maybe I just like bashing the "refresh" button on webpages - who knows. Anyway, as I was following the running tallies of the UK elections on the internet (as I type this, the Conservative Party needs 40 of the last 49 seats in order to get a simple majority), I came across this photo of Gordon Brown:
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What the hell is the guy behind him doing? My money is on the robot dance, but I couldn't be sure.
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A few years ago I stumbled across an unknown album in my laptop's music library. I was searching for an album (I can't actually remember what, perhaps it was Missy Elliot) and found an album by a random lady called Missy Higgins. I assume that one of our visitors dropped it onto my hard drive as they topped up their iPod in anticipation of the next leg of their journey, and as it was a quiet afternoon I turned it on and had a listen.
It was a pretty good album, and after a few plays both Rachel and I were quite happy to listen to more. When her next album came out, we bought it online through iTunes - I don't actually have a physical copy. This is what it looks like:
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It's a great album (clicking on the picture should take you to her official website where you can listen to a few of her songs), and her followup EP "More Than This" (yup - A Bryan Ferry cover) was pretty cool too.
Anyway, what was I getting to? Ah yes - this weekend we were out in Ap Lei Chau getting a few things for his lordship and a few things for his lordship's court jesters (the cats). As we walked into the pet store, they were playing what we thought was Missy Higgins. I hadn't heard the song, so I did what any ubergeek would do - I fired up a song recognition application on my iPhone and held it next to the speakers for 10 seconds:
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...and 20 seconds later:
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The clever old application (Shazam) identified the song, the artist, the album it came from, and even presented me with a link to buy an electronic version of the song. So, this morning I downloaded the entire album from iTunes and have been listening to it today - it's a bit lighter and more "poppy" than Missy Higgins, but it's extremely catchy.
And there ends the celebration of how much of a geek I am. (Really, I'm the only person who finds this stuff interesting - I could have started this post with "Dear Diary...")
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One of George's favourite books is the Little Yellow Digger. Needless to say, the word "Digger" features about a thousand times, and George absolutely loves it:
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Yesterday, munchkin grabbed the book, then started crawlthrowing towards Rachel (he can't hold a book and crawl at the same time, so he crawlthrows - crawl a bit, throw the book a bit, crawl a bit more, throw the book a bit further...) The crawlthrow culminated in one last book fling and him proudly yelling "DIGGA!" to Rachel. So we can now add "Digger" to the list of words he sort of understands (the others being "cheese", "yay!", "cats" and "uh-oh"). I know it doesn't sound like much of an achievement, but knowing that he's associating words with actions and objects is pretty cool (given that he calls anything and everything "mummy" or "daddy"...)
Anyway, to celebrate the new (rather manly) word, his very proud daddy bought this for him at lunchtime yesterday:
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It's not yellow, but it is little
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Other than that, the only real news is that George's first haircut is tomorrow. I'll take photos, I promise.
Ending the working week with a few photos of his lordship in the bath last night:
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. Just a few photos of Little Mr Curlytop from this morning:
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The local English language newspaper prints Pooch Cafe - it's a great little comic strip that I only discovered when I arrived in Hong Kong in 2004. Anyway, the latest comic was brilliant...
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...particularly if you realised where the dialogue came from:
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Inigo: I do not suppose you could a-speed things up?
Dread Pirate Roberts: If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a rope or a tree branch or find something useful to do.
Inigo: I could do that. I still got some rope up here, but I do not think you would accept my help, since I am only waiting around to kill you.
Dread Pirate Roberts: That does put a damper on our relationship.
Inigo: I swear, on the soul of my father, Domingo Montoya, you will reach the top alive.
Dread Pirate Roberts: Throw me the rope.
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Indeed - today's strip was a wonderful little tribute to the awesome 1987 movie, The Princess Bride.
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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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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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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 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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We had a lovely afternoon - after George's sleep and video Skype session with his grandmother, we went to the South side of the island and walked from Deepwater Bay to Repulse Bay (a pretty easy 25 minute stroll along the waterfront). On the way back we stopped at the wonderful Coco Thai Restaurant, where Mummy and Daddy enjoyed some spring rolls and some chicken wrapped in pandan leaf, while George enjoyed some rice crackers (he seemed to enjoy them). I didn't take my camera, but got this one of George eating his Mummy's hair just after we came home in the afternoon (I took it on my phone). .
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I did however have my camera when we got home, and managed to take this photo of a rather gorgeous sunset. Sunsets are coming a lot earlier these days - winter is almost upon us (for me that's a good thing, but Rachel doesn't like it as much). That said, it was a mid 20 degree Celsius day to day - doesn't feel like winter at all...
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The weekend is almost over, and it was a busy one for Bunky. Yesterday he had a bit of a Saturday morning swing session, before an afternoon with Daddy (while Mummy went shopping and doing errands). Not really much photowise, but here is a shot from the swing time:
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We had a quiet night - I watched the rugby with Cam while Rachel and George shot downstairs for the building's Halloween Party (George went as "a small child trying not to wear a shark-shaped hat").
Today we had brunch at Cam and Carolin's - had a great time, and George was in full "show off" mode when it came to his crawling. He also ate like a waste disposal unit, and managed to polish off a few baby-sized muffins after his lunch. Little piglet.
Finally, today we went down to the monthly Pokfulam Market with Alice, Harry and little Michael (the only child in Hong Kong with hair more awesome than George's). If the weather isn't too hot, then the Market presents a nice chance to lie on the grass and enjoy a bit of food and drink under the sun. There were loads of people there this afternoon (certainly more than usual - the slightly milder weather might have pushed the numbers up), and I managed to take quite a few photos of our little group:
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Harry, Michael, and some delicious sunflare
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Clockwise: Harry with the boys, George with "Sophie La Giraffe", Alice with Michael and Harry
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George the Phrenologist examining his friend Mikey (a different Michael with far less hair)
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Clockwise from top left: Alice, Harry and Michael, Rachel with George, Michael looking angry
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That's all from the weekend. It certainly was nice to be taking photos outside for a change. Unfortunately the weather is still pretty warm despite it being November (it's usually perfect weather around now, but it's still rather hot under the sun at the moment), but still - it was nice to be outside all afternoon.
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The little tyrant is getting better - still a bit raspy and has a pretty rotten cough, but he seems a lot happier this morning, and has a bit of an appetite again (although I'm sure his cheeks and thighs would have provided fat reserves for several weeks if needed). He's got an afternoon date with one of his UK girlfriends (Keira) up at The Peak this afternoon, which his mummy is very much looking forward to. Anyway, a few photos:
Posing for me this morning. Clearly feeling a little bit better.
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A photo of his room (he had just finished a bit of a jumping session in the doorway)
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Poor little mite is still a bit sick - he has bronchiolitis, so has a bit of a cough and a snotty nose. Despite being a bit restless and losing his appetite, he's actually in pretty good spirits. He's on some pretty mild medicine, and his doctor says that it's a 7 to 10 day thing. Hopefully he'll be right by the weekend. Rachel took yesterday off to take him to the doctor and to keep an eye on him, and I came home at lunch to give May a break from taking care of sick little child. As I said, he's actually in a pretty good mood, but isn't quite himself - he gets very restless sitting in the same place for more than a minute or two, and isn't really interested in crawling anywhere.
Oh yeah - did I mention he's commando crawling? He just drags himself around, but I think it passes as a crude form of crawling...
No new photos, as he's not at his best - but here's one from a few days ago. He was watching a YouTube clip - it was a short video from a political news site. He's so clever.
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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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Someone had a much better sleep last night, and is back to his usual shoutypants self this morning. Still a tad raspy, but he had a good old chew on my hair just before, so he's obviously on the up. Mummy's day off today, so Bunky has a date with his playmates this afternoon. Daddy has a date with work. Oh, the injustice.
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I love this last one. He was engrossed with his makeshift cardboard trumpet, and was totally and utterly oblivious to me:
The little fella had a bit of a rough night last night - he's got a teeny cold and combined with the (possible) after effects of his flu jab, his teeny weeny nostrils are a bit clogged up at the moment. As a result, the poor mite didn't sleep too well overnight. He was pretty chipper this morning though, and apparently slept pretty well during the day. I took this one about an hour ago, just before bathtime. It was pretty crappy lighting, but he stayed pretty still for me while I poked the camera in his face (again). Finger in the mouth generally equals "I'm tired now".
The HK Observatory called a Typhoon 8 last night, which meant that we got to come home early (to play with George), and since it's still in force, we go to work late. It'll be lifted in another 40 minutes, but then everyone gets about two hours to get to work (it takes a while for buses and taxis to get going again). Although I walk to work, I might take a sneaky extra half hour with George... Here are a few photos from this morning:
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A few other photos from around and about. Firstly, the cats find safety in numbers. And Ben's fat tummy provides ample warmth for Poppy:
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This one from the real estate agency next to the supermarket. I think they're trying to say that the market is hot at the moment, but they probably should have avoided using an online translator:
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And finally this one from our pool area. There was a gale force wind blowing when I took it, plus I was laughing at the time:
George's buddy Hugo popped in yesterday for a playdate and a swim, good times for all. I don't think there was a great deal of interaction going on, but they stared at each other a bit, and appeared to be happy with a spot of toy sharing. Here's George earlier in the day as he was watching the Canterbury v Otago game:
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And here's one of his little mate Hugo (who is a month or two older than George):
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As the playdate toddled along, the All Blacks were busy showing us that it wasn't just the Black Caps who couldn't catch a ball. The lineouts - which I swear have sucked since 2000 - were abysmal, we dropped the ball in open play more times than I care to remember, and with almost 20 minutes to go and 10 points down, we chose to go for a try (instead of an easy penalty which would have put us within one score of the Boks).
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The simple way to fix the lineout problem would be to tell the lineout chaps that their match fee is paid according to the following formula:
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Match fee = (Number of own line outs won ÷ Number of own lineouts taken) x Normal Match fee
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So, if they take five lineouts in a game and lose three of them, then they would get 40% of their usual match fee. I suspect the stats would get much better if this was the case.
Still, traitorous beggar that I am, my emotional hedge came through - the Boks were paying $2.65 for the win, so my TAB account balance is looking ok this week.
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Finally, after coming to their collective senses and electing a President who can actually pronounce the word 'nuclear' (it's not "NOO-KEY-LURR", dude), a large section of sub-par-IQ Americans are panicking about the Nazi / Socialist / Muslim / Marxist / Baby killing / Grandma killing president in charge and have lost their collective minds. These from the "We're not really sure what we're protesting" Protests in Washington DC yesterday:
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And my favourite one:
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In other news, my camera is with the Nikon service people for a while - I had a very random problem (very random = 5 out of about 2000 photos) where some vertical banding would appear on some photos. Although it didn't happen often, I figured I'd get it checked out while the camera was under warranty - so no D700 for me for a few weeks. The service man muttered something about replacing the Compression Board (whatever that is), and then my baby was whisked away to get in the queue for surgery.
Faced with the prospect of being cameraless for a few weeks, Philip (my neighbour at work) has very kindly loaned me his back up camera until mine comes back. It's a D90 - similar to my D700 but a little bit smaller. Works beautifully, although some of the controls are in different places - but I'll get used to it (today's photo was taken with the D90).
Bunky's just gearing up to go and meet the Fabio parentals (aka Gavin and Diane Bornholdt) this afternoon, but his personal paparazzo took a few photos of him yesterday. He was sitting on his mother's knee for this one, and looked ludicrously happy to be there:
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Then a few from the morning playtime with daddy - one of them demonstrating why extreme closeups are not a good idea with Mr "If I can reach it, then it goes in my mouth" Bunkypants:
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And finally one of him and his mummy showing off his new duds. His Wednesday baby group meetup was in Stanley, where you can get great bargains on factory seconds. In the following photo, his lordship is modelling a GAP shirt, and some stripey shorts (I am ashamed to admit that I don't know which label produced them, but I'm sure Rachel will let me know as soon as she reads this):
