Welcome Jasper

After much consideration  we have finally decided to get a new family pet. Now almost 9 years since our wonderful Caleidh passed we gave in to the kids (and Kathryn's) constant begging and have a new puppy! 

Jasper is a beautiful red and white Border Collie. Very smart and an absolutely wonderful gentle sweet nature so far. We picked him up from the breeder almost two weeks ago and he has transitioned into the family beautifully.  We are in the middle of crate training him and have all the necessary arrangements in place for his return to Hong Kong with us. Although a back yard would be the ideal we have decided to tackle the challenges of having an energetic pup in a high-rise apartment over the alternative of  waiting for the "perfect" time and place to own one. 

So, I am sure we will have a number of interesting experiences to report on the blog in the coming year with our newest addition. 

Celebration breakfast

the SCMP article

...and his even more proud wife!!

Mark and his proud children

Mark and the Vice Chancellor

A day of Celebration

Today was a day to celebrate for our family. Mark has recently (in July) completed the Master's of Marketing degree through the Macquarie University and the graduation ceremony was held this morning at the Grand Hyatt Hotel Ballroom.
Last night we attended a cocktail function as he was awarded a Deans award for top of one subject. This morning our family had a lovely celebration buffet breakfast before Mark gowned up and we had the official portraits taken. Mark had a restless and sleepless night as he had been chosen by the university to present an address at the beginning of the ceremony for the Graduating students.
He , of course, had no reason to worry and delivered his very heartfelt and approriate address with poise and elegance- even including some cantonese for his class mates which was very well received. We were all impressed with the very warm applause and cheering from the crowd when his name was announced to speak. His speech concluded with a lovely note of appreciation and thanks for the love and support he has received from the children and myself which have allowed him to commit so much to his studies.
In addition to receiving his masters document we were absolutely thrilled to learn he was awarded two further accolades. He received the Directors award for the highest grade point average for his graduating class and another which was for best performance overall in the Marketing Strand of the Masters Program.
Certainly high praise and achievement considering the gruelling schedule of work and travel commitments , not to mention family time.
The children and I were so happy to be present at the ceremony and to witness his achievements and even little Riley coped well with the formailities and the presentation of some 200+ graduands.
Whilst Mark still has 3 more subjects to go before the completion of his MBA program ( having already completed 3 more since July) we were so happy and proud to celebrate his wonderful progress and achievements .

I have included a photo of the article which appeared yesterday in the South China Morning Post (the largest english language circulation newspaper in HK) which was also about Mark and the University program.

Halloween party

Wow , what a busy month it has been. We finished our October with a party after school this afternoon for Halloween. Since this is not an Aussie tradition , we embrace the opportunity to celebrate it whilst living here in the expat community (what is not to like ?? a holiday with loads of lollies , "candies" and dress-ups as well) We have trick or treated each year but this was our first year to host a party. Each of the kids chose a few friends to invite so we had about 16 kids along with my friends children also. I baked some halloween treats, a vanilla witch cake, some choc ghost cupcakes and little goblin pots of jelly. I can see all the Mum's out there cringing at the sugar- never fear I also made sandwiches and mini hotdogs and we ordered in pizzas.

We had a variety of games starting with some halloween colouring pages and maze puzzles, a variation of bobbing for apples using forks (didn't want to risk spreading the change of season lurgies- and this was a novel way to get each child eating some healthy fruit before the serious sugar overload.) , we wrapped Mummies up using kids as mannequins and toilet paper as bandages and had a great and very noisy treasure hunt for chocs and lolly pops. I must admit part of my motivation for holding the party was to control the types of candy the kids had (in light of the melamine scandal- I bought only Australian, US and French chocs), and this saved me having to confiscate the "questionable" candy they would collect going door to door.

Each of the guests left with a little noodle box filled with chocs and lollypops which Riley had helped me decorate with spider stickers. It was lovely to get a chance to catch up with my friends after the busy month we have had and Odila was a wonderful help with all the busy little party-people.

Beijing adventure

We are back from our three day adventure in Beijing! We left after school on Friday and arrived at the hotel late in the evening (the Beijing Marriott City Wall- a very new "Mega" hotel - with four towers of rooms). After breakfast on Saturday morning we headed out to the Mu Tian Yu section of the wall with Oliver,our guide. It was very busy and here was a traffic jam , but we finally reached the cable car section and rode to the top. We hiked for about 2 kilometres along the wall and then took a toboggan run down the hill- FABULOUS fun and the kids had a blast. This section is beautiful , the skies were blue and the air clear with a lovely 18 degrees. In the afternoon we had a rickshaw ride through the Hutong section which was again a wonderful experience. The drivers were really fun with the kids and were racing each other and encouraging the kids to grab at the other rickshaw- maybe a slight bit dangerous but the boys just loved it. We had a quick pizza hut dinner before heading to the Acrobatic Show which kept us all enthralled for nearly two hours. It simply goes beyond description what those young acrobats can do. We collapsed into our beds to try to rest before day two.

Sunday morning saw a very early start as we decided to try to see another section of wall in addition to the full day that was planned. We left the hotel at 6 am and headed out to the Ju Yong Guan section of wall. What can I say- we had an even better experience than the day before. it was less busy than the we had experienced the day before , equally spectacular and a great chance to take many photos with stunning early morning light. The local Chinese people loved watching our four eager little people scrambling up the wall and playing together. We happily posed in many peoples photos as we were quite a novelty to them. I told Maddie she should smile and enjoy it- it may be the closest she comes to being a celebrity and it is nice to think that complete strangers would think her special enough to want a photo with. Some of the steps were quite high (almost up to Riley's hip level) so it was more physically challenging but well worth the climb. We then went to a factory to see cloisonne ware being made before heading to the Summer Palace. Another steep climb to view the palace from the temple perched high above the lake and by then we had really earned some lunch. The afternoon we spent at Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. We finished the day with a traditional Peking Duck dinner. The kids were horrified at the idea of eating duck and it was quite an experience. They are getting better at being more adventurous with their food tastes but their reluctance was obvious. We steered clear of some of the other menu options such as bull frog, duck tongues and scorpions and we tried to explain the by comparison Peking Duck was the "safe" option. Callum explained he actually though room service hamburgers would be a much safer option!

Monday morning saw Mark head off to the office for meetings and the children and I went to The temple of Heaven. We had a wonderful time wandering around seeing all the local people practicing their tai chi, laying traditional musical instruments, ball room dancing, playing cards and dominoes, and most special the old gentlemen with their buckets of water and traditional brushes painting calligraphy character poems out of water on the pavement. the kids (and I) were mesmerised, watching it quickly evaporate. What a beautiful and peaceful start to the day. Next we visited the Pearl and Silk market and even went to silk factory where the kids learned all about the way silk is made. We finished up with a visit to the Olympic stadium, the Water cube and the athlete village before heading back to the airport for our flight home. We have maybe a thousand photos from the three days and my head is still spinning trying to process all we saw. It was a truly wonderful weekend. I will post some pics to try to give you a bit of an overview. I just want to add that I am in "awe" of the stamina, flexibility and adaptability of our four little people. They coped amazingly well with a very demanding schedule and a very foreign environment and culture. They practised their mandarin with our two guides, Oliver and William and were complimented on their enthusiasm and ability as well as their wonderful Beijing accents. Great job guys!