Holidays, woo hoo!

It's holidays, and it's about time! That was a long term, and there was so much in it.

We now have 2 fabulous weeks off. I thought about going home for a week but decided I would just stay here and have a big catch up week. I'm going to catch up on reading, cleaning, school work, odd jobs, sewing, shopping, emails etc.

I have a feeling the next term is going to fly by just as fast (it's a bit shorter, only 9 weeks). There'll be lots to do in the library to get ready to move to the new one, and there is a trip to Bangkok and Singapore, and I have lovely friends coming to visit. So it will be nice to start the term having caught up with everything.

In the second week I'm going to Cambodia with 2 friends from school, Anna and Abi. I can't wait for that, and am looking forward to posting something a bit more exciting again!

Mango bites

Ok this might not be new for some people, but it's new for me. Look at the size of these cute little mangoes! They are so little I didn't believe the shop assistant when I asked what they were.

But yes, they are small bite-sized mangoes. There's only a teaspoon full in each half, and delicious!

And no, I don't normally eat fantails with mangoes, I just needed something small to compare the size with.

Raise the Roof

I've just had a night of music! I went to the Raise the Roof Choral Concert, which is where the primary school kids from each ESF school gets together to make a massive choir.

There were 750 kids, and they sounded awesome!! They sang for an hour, and had some fantastic songs. I used my camera to try and record some of the singing to post here, but I've just listened to it and it sounds pretty crappy. I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression.

So here's a photo instead. It's not a very good photo either, but it is of the 750 kids in front of me.

Ching Ming Festival

Today is a public holiday (hooray!). It is called the Ching Ming Festival, where families go to their ancestor's and relative's graves and clean/sweep them. Some people also burn paper money, paper clothes or other paper items today, as they believe the relatives can receive the goods this way. There is high fire danger on the hills today, as many graves are just on a hill and not in a cemetary. They burn their paper offerings but never have any water to put out the fires! It makes the week seem nice and short, especially as yesterday was a CPD (professional development) day and we had no kids at school.

Weekend in Manila

A group of us flew to Manila after school on Friday, to start celebrating Chris C's birthday. What a good weekend we had!

I didn't really think much about what I expected from Manila, so it was a surprise to me that it was probably more unsafe than I had expected. My first clue was when the taxi driver demanded I lock my door as we were passing a couple of army trucks full of men with guns. I hadn't expected that!

Manila is very busy, dirty, full of beggers and electricity wires that look like they could blow up the city at any moment. But it was also really interesting, people were friendly, and we had some great food (I'm still not convinced Chris' fish was any good, although he says it was!).

We did a tour on a horse and cart around all the old Spanish and Portuguese areas which was really interesting. Chris and I were led into a dungeon by a man with a gun, and he locked us down there! Gotta say that did make me a bit nervous.

We had some time by the beautiful pool at the hotel, and found an awesome shopping centre, and the boys all had a great night out at a drag show. So all in all, even though I'm glad I don't live there, it was a great weekend!

One busy week

Well they came, they whizzed around Hong Kong, and they left. What a great week we all had. Ocean Park, Mong Kok markets, Cheung Chau, Star Ferry... they really explored all the touristy areas and got to see all my favourite things. The only downside was me having to go to work and miss out on some of the fun.

I had my birthday last week so it was really nice to go out for dinner to celebrate. Although by then I had caught some kind of bug and had lost my voice and wasn't feeling too much like celebrating. I'm only just starting to recover now, after 2 days in bed!

I love the photo of David trying to feed Matthew on the last day, and Matty wouldn't drink it because he was glued to the television! (I think a Johnny Depp movie was on, so I couldn't blame him).

Something I'll have to blog about next year is the Rugby Sevens. It was on this weekend, and it's all I've been hearing about for weeks. Everyone catches rugby fever at this time of year. Maybe next year I'll go and see what all the fuss is about.

But for now I'm headed for a quiet week catching up on work and sleep, as I'm off to Manila on the weekend!

(PS I know the photos are all wonky but I couldn't line them up nicely. Oh well.)

A quick post cause I'm all tuckered out

Day 3 of having all my visitors here, and we have done heaps!

It was so exciting going to meet my family at the airport on Friday night, and the best bit was Matthew laughing hysterically when he saw me. I think it's cause he loves me, others might say he was overtired from his first very long plane ride.

We are cramming in all the things I want them to experience - we did a whole day shoppping up in Shenzhen, we spent yesterday at Disneyland (hooray, I love Disneyland), and today while I was at work they went up to the Peak, and then shopped themselves silly down at Stanley markets.

(Mum, Elizabeth and Matty at Disneyland - It's A Small World)

I met them down there, and then we headed over to Kowloon for dinner and the light show.

Needless to say we are all going to be very tired by the weekend, but it's so completely worth it :-)

David is enjoying Hong Kong, as it's his first trip overseas. A little different to Cooma! Mum and Dad have been here before, but it's even better when we have the whole family here.

(What do you buy in China? A wig of course... doesn't everyone?)

Elizabeth and Mark are having a great time too of course (I think Elizabeth especially enjoyed stocking up on cute baby clothes at Stanley today).

And little Matty has been a star. He is such a good traveller and a good baby. He had a great trip on the plane, and has of course also had his first taxi ride, train rides, and ferry trip. He has been happy being dragged around in the pram, although quite often he has been dragged OUT of the pram for cuddles with Nanny, Poppy, David and I. He is just too darn cute!