This written on Dec 28th

Holiday highlights:

1. Camping with 55 others, mostly kids, for two nights in Sai Kung just before Christmas Day. The campsite is not small by any measures, but as the place started to fill up with other groups of various shapes and sizes, my irrational disdain for Cantopoppers started to surface. Trash everywhere. People talking at the top of their voices, in the middle of the night. Human excrement not properly disposed of in the toilets. Greasy noodles and chicken skin blocking sinks. More trash everywhere, especially right next to the bins, which were not full.

2. Christmas day. 14 lb turkey, sourdough bread, parsnip chips and roast potatoes, buttered asparagus, carrots and broccoli. I received three baking related items for my X’mas presents, two books, and two thermal tops.

3. Boxing Day Race up at Wanchai Gap, on boxing day, obviously, joined by fellow runners (a) my eight year old son and (b) my old pal C, who just had her fourth baby five months ago. They both beat me to the finish. The buggers! In the afternoon I dashed back to the office to finish off my marking and handed in the mark sheets. In record time! Then I tried to submit a paper electronically to a journal, but the stupid earthquake, as you may or may not know, has damaged some underwater cables or somesuch, and the internet connection to some overseas sites was broken (still is as I type, actually).


4. Magic show in the Shatin Town Hall, night of the 27th. The Spencers, they are called, from the U S of A. Mr Spencer performed all the classics: cut his lovely wife into half, floated in mid-air, pulled a couple of Houdinis (one under water), did a trick involving pompoms and a stick, and some others. After the show we queued up to meet the magician and to get his autograph. O was wildly excited, as he is kind of an aspiring magician. J was sleepy as hell and complained bitterly the whole way back, accusing me of unmotherly conduct for not having brought the car. In response, I gave him a long lecture about the environment and the importance boosting our immune systems by catching germs and viruses from the masses via public transport every now and then, which irritated him even more. Haha! Poor kid fell asleep the second he laid his head on the pillow.


5. Two hours of tennis this morning, then another hour with son number two, then a two hour nap. Guess what I had for dinner? Hah ahaha…. Yes. The classic. Turkey curry. Well at least it’s thai green curry which, despite being from a tin, was not too shabby. Now I’m ready to finish off that half bottle of Rioja.