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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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He's a Kiwi(fruit) kid...
I came home early thanks to Chinese New Year celebrations, and thus had the pleasure of administering his lordship's dinner to him. As you can see, George is of the "Skin absorption" school of thought when it comes to consuming kiwifruit: .
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Mechanic
I think he's going to be a mechanic... .
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...a mechanic specialising in tasty, tasty cars.
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It's almost Chinese New Year - Kung Hei Fat Choi!
It's almost Chinese New Year - and we get a four day weekend. Unfortunately the weather forecast is rotten (to put it mildly), but hopefully we'll still be able to go out and about for a few of the days. Kristine (Rachel's room mate at work) and Josh (Kristine's almost-but-not-quite-but-will-soon-be-her-husband) are coming over for brunch on Saturday, and we have plans to go to Karin's house for the fireworks on Monday (which might be moved to Tuesday, thanks to the weather...) I'm sure we have other things to do inbetween, but regardless of the weather it'll be lovely to spend four days in a row with Bunky.
Aperture 3 from Apple just came out, and I'm doing a 30 day trial on it to see whether it's worth purchasing. It's basically a slicker version of iPhoto on steroids. Seems to do pretty much everything the Photoshop does, but without the complicated menus - a bit more user friendly. I would be very surprised if I didn't pick up the full version at the end of the 30 days, but I've still got a bit of exploring to do.
I'll leave you with a photo of Bunky that I took this morning...
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Photos from this morning
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Narcissism (and other morning photos)
What could possibly be keeping George's attention? He's absolutely fascinated with something: .
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...silly question. He is of course admiring himself on the computer screensaver:
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Some other random photos from this morning:
Getting a closer look at... himself
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Just chilling, leaning on the computer chair
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Standing, with a little help from Rachel
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And finally my favourite photos from the morning - see what happens when he finds sheepskin....
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Swings and slides
The one person eating machine had a fun day today - morning was the usual "how many lego blocks can I fit in my mouth" shenanigans and then we headed down the hill to play on the swings and slides in the yukky polluted Hong Kong air. Rachel had to head out at lunch, so it was boys' morning at the apartment. I had heard that George had been eating enough to feed a rugby team, but I hadn't seen him lunching for a week or so. Seriously, the boy can eat.
In the presence of his daddy, George ate two sausages, part of an avocado, some cheese, a load of yoghurt, some blueberries, some strawberries, some milk and a bit of pear. I was gobsmacked at the amount of food that disappeared down his waiting gob.
In the afternoon I ended up taking him downstairs where the children of the building tend to congregate. He's a bit young to really do anything apart from eat a toy and crawl around watching the big kids, but he had a great time cuddling up to his favourite golden retriever, Trostsky.
It's almost dinnertime here, so I'll leave you with a few photos of the Bunkmeister and his mummy down at the playground.
But... before I go - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTY JACQ! (Each of those words is a separate hyperlink, by the way...)
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Oh dear. Nothing is safe.
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Banana smoothie moustache
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Photos: Morning lounge, evening bath
A few more random photos from around and about the house - we did actually get out this weekend, but apart from the photo that Sam took yesterday, I haven't got much to show for it. Ooops. .
Ben having a tough old time on Sunday afternoon
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The little monkey in the lounge this morning. Whenever he spots something made of sheepskin or anything that vaguely resembles a pillow, he drops his little head, puts his finger in his mouth... and has a little rest. It really is the cutest thing ever.
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In the bath tonight - playing the "throw toy out of the bath and look pleased with myself" game
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He covers quite a lot of ground during bathtime...
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Guest photographer
This photo was taken by little Sam Binnington - aged 3 and a bit (we had lunch with him and the rest of the Binnington Clan on Ssaturday, and I let Sam take a few photos with my camera): .
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He did a pretty good job, huh?
Also, looking at the sheer awesomeness of my afro, I'm guessing my next haircut isn't too far away - although I could probably blame this one on the wide angle lens.
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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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What goes up must come down
Someone rather famous once said that any idiot could get up Mount Everest - but it took real skill to get back down again. George can now pull himself to standing, as you can see in the photo sequence below. Unfortunately, getting back down to his backside is the real challenge. At the moment he just pulls himself up and then wails until someone helps him back onto his bum.
Unsurprisingly, this approach does seem to be working for the little tyrant...
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Not much else going on really - here are a few shots I took this morning of the little man playing on his birthday car from Suki and Queenie. He's not quite self-powered yet; he can go backwards with no problem, but moving forward is a bit of a challenge at the moment. He does love riding it though:
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Bath shenanigans
George's latest bathtime game is taking whatever he's playing with and helpfully passing throwing it over the edge to me or Rachel (it gets a bit messy when the plaything is a half full plastic cup of water...) .
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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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George and one of his grandmothers
A few that I forgot about - this was just before we left Shanti's house to head to the airport (we were heading up to Hawkes Bay that day):
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A Hong Kong Wedding Banquet
I've been to a few weddings in Hong Kong, but last night was the first time that I had charged on and actually attended to formal banquet. One of our group's secretaries (Queenie) got married yesterday (well, technically they had a wedding sans the legal wedding ceremony - it's a long story), and she very kindly invited me along. Wedding banquets are relaxed affairs, but the order of events and the food served is pretty much set in stone. I was lucky enough to be sitting with my workmates, who were all very eager to talk me through the whole thing.
The whole shaboodle kicked off at around 5pm, when the mahjong and cards begin. This is called the "reception", and if it wasn't for Philip letting me know that it wasn't the Western "reception" (i.e. drinks and nibbles), I might have ended up relearning to play mahjong and losing all of the money in my wallet (oh yes, they play for cash...)
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Ok, so the shot of the fish head probably wasn't necessary, but I couldn't resist.
During the games component of the reception, the bride and groom are pretty much a fixture at the front of the room, and as people enter the venue, they get shuttled to where the bride and groom are so that they can get formal photos with them (every guest has at least one formal photo with the bride and groom - it's pretty cool). I got my photo taken with them, then Philip and I had one with them (Philip and I both work with Queenie), and then the entire table from my work joined in for a group shot.
After that, there's a little bit of milling about before the banquet begins - videos and slideshows were played, and Queenie and Calvin left the room and then reentered it for the dinner. Here's a fairly random assortment of photos from that time:
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Top left is mother of the bride, bottom left is the rose petal holders that were used for Queenie's entrance into the banquet room, and bottom right is a pack of cards from one of the card playing tables.
After the brief speeches and whatnot, the banquet formally began with a suckling pig served at each table. Bloody delicious. This was followed by shark fin soup (which I passed on), and then a trainload of other dishes - but the suckling pig really was the standout.
Once dinner was over, the bridal party circulated around the tables for toasts and photos, and then dessert was served up (along with a plate of oranges - I think there is some traditional reason for this, but I'll have to check). To end proceedings, Queenie, Calvin and their families lined up by the door to say goodbye and thank you to all the guests on the way out - a nice way to end the evening.
Here are a few more photos from the night, in no particular order:
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The girl with the wine glass and in that last photo is Suki - Queenie's sister and the other group secretary.
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Finally - and this was actually taken before the wedding - here's one of my partner in crime last night, Philip. I took this one of him in his new studio in Causeway Bay. How cool are those purple walls?
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Bathtime
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Oh how the mighty have fallen
Oh Shane Warne. Wha' happened? I hope you're getting paid a truckload for this (taken outside the lifts at my doctor's surgery): .
Put your hand up if you're a complete wally
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