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I had a very quick edit of a few photos that I took at the wedding on Saturday. I don't really want to upload any more [edited for pedantic Aunty Jane***] until I get the ok from the person I was helping out, but here are a few early photos that I had a quick go at editing. Nowhere near the final product, but I wanted to upload a few after having a look through them tonight. The bottom one especially needs work, methimks. I could never be a wedding photographer. Waaaaay too much stress...
Short week this week - for some reason we get a holiday on Friday, solely due to it being the first of May. No complaints from me. Only one photo this morning (and I think it's a tad out of focus to be honest). Little dude had a lovely cuddle with Aunty Kirstie before she and Uncle Robin went out this morning:
Even as we frantically clean the house in anticipation of the Challis Delegation from Singapore, I managed to get a few photos of Chez Narly on this delightful Saturday morning. After his breakfast, the little man visited our bed this morning and had a fine old time, gurgling and smiling and vomiting on himself. Delightful.
Then the little man had his first nap in his cot (he's been in his laundry hamper bassinet. I managed to take a little photo of him snoozing and showing off his forehead's "blue vein of discontent")
Also - a photo for my sister... with the Challis family arriving, Rachel just made up the spare room, and used the gorgeous pillowcases that you and E gave us at Christmas:
You can see two pictures behind the bed - the top one is Eliot's wedding present to us and the bottom one was a wedding present from Simon (Pope) and Kate (Pope-Barker? Naaaah that sounds a bit strange).
Anyway, I leave you with a photo (taken from our lounge) of the delightful weather we get to experience today. Aaaah delicious Hong Kong smog. How I love the way you invade my lungs and make me hack and cough. Never fear, the government (no capital 'G' necessary there) is holding lots of meetings and writing lots of initiatives for fixing the air quality. They aren't actually doing anything, but just knowing that they are talking about it makes me feel all warm inside (although that warm feeling could actually be my lungs pleading for mercy).
Edit: While I'm having a mini-rant, this is from the HK Government website: "Hong Kong's air pollution is mainly contributed by motor vehicles and power plants".
It's worth pointing out that to combat motor vehicle emissions, the government is building more road, refusing to allow cars to convert to LPG, and refusing to allow electric cars on roads (the word "baffling" doesn't even come close...) and to "punish" the power plants (conveniently owned by HK's richest man), the government contributed HK$300 towards every household's monthly power bill for a year. I guess putting the money directly into the power company's account would have been a little suspicious.
Because sometimes you come across a name so awesome, it would be a crime not to share it:
Team Challi arrive tomorrow (only the two team captains are coming though - Lieutenant Robin and First Mate Kirstie). Here for 4 or 5 days and then awaaaaaaay to hot and muggy Singapore again. Birthday drinks for Jim on Sat night in Shek-O, and then on Sunday we're hooking up with Sam and Mary for lunch (starring the Challi family again). Oh, and on Sunday morning I'm helping a photographer friend to shoot a wedding ceremony, which will be a fantastic experience. Anyway - a nice and busy weekend, which is useful for helping us forget that we're not in NZ anymore...
In my quest to find a way to show bigger photos, I'm tweaking the templates for this site. Hence, a whole lot of stuff might seem a bit wonky (or, as it is at the moment - completely different) over the next few days. Forgive me while I iron out some kinks... No new photos of the little man (I was too busy playing with him to take photos), but here is one I took of Ben that cracks me up (I like to call it "Alien Abduction"), and a repeat of a photo of a coffee machine that I posted a few days ago (because I needed a lengthways image and that was the first I found in my iPhoto library).
Happy Birthday Ross! You are now officially closer to 40 than you are to 30. Sorry, dude. A few photos after George's first night back in Hong Kong. After a touch of grumpiness triggered by his desire to start his night sleep earlier than usual and his mummy's desire for him not to sleep too early, a Mexican standoff was avoided, and little man had a good night of dozing - with only a few grizzles before morning arrived. Not bad, given that he ought to have a touch of jetlag. A bit of tummy time this morning led to an inadvertent roll - which we would like to put down to his immense strength, but sadly have to accept that it was more due to the size of his cloth nappy relative to the rest of his scrawny torso. Poor kiddo rolls around like a spinning top if unsupervised.
As you can see, his afro is really coming along. I'm struggling to tell whether it's morning hair or a true afro. I'll let you know after bathtime tonight.
Seriously - I'm not sure what to photograph when George isn't here. So I played with some old ones (sorry Amanda, sorry Chipper):
spacespacespace Had far too much coffee this afternoon - a hazard of knowing the owner of my favourite Hong Kong coffee shop. Still, a great afternoon catching up with Sanjay and I met Jacqui and Zadie for the first time (cousin of Craig, who is an old friend of the Singapore Challis clan). Spent much of the afternoon wandering around Central and looking at camera lenses, and just checking out the shops (a bit of a treat given that I work just around the corner from our apartment!)
No George photos until Wednesday when he and his mummy touch down in Hong Kong. So here's a coffee machine instead:
George with his security detail and George with Grandma Shanti [EDIT - I already posted that photo of Grandma, but it's nice and big this time):
There was a gorgeous sunset on my last night in Auckland, and I've just stumbled across this photo in my library. It's not a particularly well taken shot, but the colour is gorgeous and I'm a bit of a silhouette fan. So here you go:
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Also, I'm in the process of tweaking this layout so that I can get rid of that column over on the left. It's pretty pointless and I can upload much bigger and nicer looking photos if I can have the whole page instead of this little column. I'll do this over the next few days, so apologies if it all looks a bit mucky.
There were waaaay too many photos to post in the usual manner, so you get a little Flash photo album for this one. Sorry that the main pic is so small - I'll try and fix that tonight (EDIT - Should be a lot bigger now). Just hover your mouse over the main photo and self-navigate around it. If you have problems, hit me up in the Contact section and I'll see what I can do. [svgallery name="mona"]
spacespacesapce More busy days for George - on Saturday he went out to Lydia and Brad's farm in South Auckland and had a lovely lunch out there with Lydia, Brad, Bump (due May), Bridget, Marcus and little Isabel. Just a few photos from there:
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And then a few photos with George's Aunty Jane and Aunty Chipper:
spacespacespace A few more photos from G's day out. Daddy is missing his editing software (and his cats) quite a lot, but only a few more days until he is reunited with Photoshoppy Goodness. In a late change to the itinerary, Rachel and George are staying on in NZ for another week to chill out, while Daddy brings home the proverbial bacon...
George with Aunty Amanda:
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Hanging with Uncle Eugene in the afternoon (when Mummy and Daddy accidentally stumbled upon him in downtown Auckland and tagged along for a few wines):
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And one last photo from the Stanley Bay ferry:
Haven't got time to edit or organise photos, but here are a few I grabbed from the camera of little George with various new friends around New Zealand - firstly with Grandma Shanti (one on the couch and one just before bathtime), George and Aunty Jane-O, George and Aunty Kate, George and Uncle Aaron and finally a few of George with Honorary Grandma Joy:
spacespacespace George met his mates Thomas and Angus this morning, and in the afternoon hung out with Claudia, James and their respective parents. Daddy went nuts with the camera, and despite not having his editing software here in New Zealand, there are some very sweet ones of the day.
Firstly, Thomas and Angus tearing up the back yard:
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And then some of Teams Pearce, Hayes and Georgeous at Chez Hayes:
