gorgeous little molly popped up for a visit this morning. we both had a lovely cuddle, although i seemed to make her grumble more than rachel did. bah.
saturday morning
nothing quite as nice as waking up to find a kitten purring softly under the duvet next to you... went to a japanese restaurant with cam and carolin last night, then hit the bond movie. japanese was umami @ cyberport (cyberport being a soul and charisma-free fake neighbourhood around the corner from where we live - and it's where i work). food was really rather good and after i busted out several pages of vouchers (oh the benefits of working in the middle of nowhere) it was pretty good value too.
the bond movie was awesome (new bond girl might be entering the narly-top-5) even though i really didn't know what was going on for most of it. action sequences were brilliant, although at times the product placement could have been perhaps a little more subtle - range rover and virgin atlantic certainly got their moeny's worth.
wandering out to discovery bay today to see lisa's jewellery exhibition and to catch up with sue, steve, helen and pete for a spot of afternoon tea (very civilised, i say old chap). then back to central to catch mark and emma for a bit of dinner somewhere and then i'll park myself in front of the television to watch the nz v england rugby game. miracle of miracles, it's being shown in hong kong.
here's popstar this morning in our bed:
little frederick cary
we had a great video chat with jonathan and laura last night and got to meet little freddie cary - what a cute little fella! laura looks great and jonathan looks stoked with daddyhood - and the little guy looks as cute as a button. i have taken the liberty of pilfering some photos from his website, i know he won't mind:
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on other matters, i survived through two hours of breastfeeding talk and videos at antenatal class last night. it was actually informative and quite useful, although it would appear that if we give little Spawn of Narly formula milk, all three of us along with our families, friends and people that we meet at the bus stop will be struck down with the plague or the black lung, and then get run over by trucks.
or something like that.
bangkok - good timing on our escape
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as lovely as another few weeks in the hotel would have been, i'm quite glad that we got out of bangkok when we did. a week later and we might have been stuck in the airport - protesters have blocked the roads to the airport, causing all flights to be cancelled. ouch.
a sunset and a haircut
lovely view from our balcony, tragic view in our bathroom:
cracker in four dimensions
here's a 4d scan of cracker from last thursday's appointment with our obstetrician. you're forgiven if you thought it was actually a mars surface photo beamed down from NASA.
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you can see an eye, nose and the upper lip - the thing on the left is the umbilical cord, and that thing on his/her left cheek (your right) is his/her arm. i'm looking forward to january so i can stop saying "his/her" all of the time.
...and awesome news from a few minutes ago, jonathan and laura just had a baby boy. jonathan's text says it's a "beautiful" baby boy, but i've had no photo evidence yet... (just kidding jonathan - now hurry up and send photos). hefty little fella weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces.
liam
just thought i'd post an old photo that i only just got around to editing - a lovely little shot of liam (simon and kirsty's little guy, twin of paige). this was taken at our place earlier this year.
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.
a few photos from bangkok
back after a blissful weekend of eating, sleeping and doing nothing. apart from thai taxi drivers all thinking that they are driving formula 1 cars, it was a fantastic relaxing time. and possibly the last time we fly as just the two of us for a long, long time - eek. as i think i mentioned a few days ago, the peninsula upgraded us to a great big awesome suite and left us a birthday cake (chocolate - delicious) - certainly got us off to a great start. to be honest, we didn't do a lot that's worth talking about - sat by the pool, swam a bit, i hit the gym a few times (and then promptly reversed my good work in a hotel restaurant), and we picked up a bit of new cutlery that rachel was coveting.
here are a few photos - one from our balcony, one from the restaurant, one taken by me standing on the bed and one of me... um, jumping on the bed:
