Cox Family

Danika

Boxing and beyond

Aiden with his new board - photo before waxing - serious business

Rose about to head out to the islands, with Ange, Roy and Debbie.

Aiden and Ev on the left, at last big enough to hold their own in a game of BV.

 

Granny Rose becomes the parts department for the Kombi build.

Northern monsoon this morning - crystal clear, white tops on the sea.

Rose and Aiden

With wild hair in the wind.

Daisy and Courtney

Evan

Jordan and Daisy

Aiden and Courtney

Sunset in the park

Evan

Jordan

Rose

Christmas tree

Dylan

Evening in the country park - winter kite smiles

Went for a solo walk in the country park this evening - so beautiful - bruised colours and a winter crispness coming to the landscape - people and laughter tinkling through the trees, and of course kites - that quintessentially romantic past-time.  This camera is amazing - shooting smooth blue hues in next to no light.  Using my old 24/105 lens, open wide with its Top-Gear vignette.

Winter park, high up; thirsty grass and gnarled trees, with the islands in the background

The pagoda at the top - 15 years of three generations of photos.

A boy and his kite; a happy soaring thing, unburdened by homework
and test scores.

Galling game to end the term

Ev's final game of the term left me thanking any listening deity.  His team displayed biblical awfulness - playing a team that consisted of a gang of clowns and one infinitely serious player, with a howitzer shot - who no-one bothered to mark out of existence.  In the end, they prevailed, with a scoreline of  9-5 (yes, soccer, not rugby) with Ev absolutely besieged, shells raining down. This dude was amazing - to give him appropriate credit - scored one goal with a free kick from almost the half way line (wtf!). Ev spent most of the game horizontal - saved three, got a hand to one other - and with the other four on the receiving end of the spirit of Christiano Ronaldo, breathing hellfire and damnation.  All in all it turned out to be pretty exciting - his team eventually decided not to be palookas and scored four in the last five minutes.  I did have to ask them on the way home why it was that they actually went to school.  Clearly thinking about the situation was not at the forefront of the collective.  Should have beaten them 15-2 (two unstoppable free kicks allowed for).

Ange soaking up some late morning sun - absolutely glorious day - waiting for the party to begin.

Could post six more just like this - horizontal Ev.  Love this pic - the looks on the faces of people watching.
This kid was seriously incredible - insane blend of velocity and accuracy.  The ball in this pic is long gone.

Battered and bruised, catching some suds at home.

Morning

Thinking of you guys in New York - hope you are having a lovely time.  Looked at the weather, said Friday was sunny, with a maximum of 5 degrees.  Delightful; crisp and clear.  Hope you found yourself on a stroll in Central Park somewhere along the line.  Forecast of snow on Wednesday - how exciting - hope that happens.  Grinding into action here today.  Love this time of year - what is it?  Two days of work left and then off for a week.  Christmas.  Divine.  Love you.

Aiden, ready to go for his early game, headphones warning off any morning intruders, Ange stretching
her stripy pajamas.

Aiden plays against the HK National Team

Aiden played for the KCC Henderson team against the HK U13 National Team this evening.  It was a great reason to leave the office at 5pm, I met Ange there and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Delightfully the result was a 1-1 draw, which of course feels like a victory for the underdogs.  And that they were.  I think the pic says it all - they were seriously skilled; fit, well drilled positionally and played as a cohesive team.  Watching, it felt like they had a couple of extra players on the field (to the extent that I eventually couldn't resist counting - I know I know).  Aiden played off the bench, and got a third of the game; super-proud to see him out there holding his own and loving it.  His mate from rugby, Jules, was the reserve keeper, and also got on for the last third.  He made an absolutely cracking save about 10 minutes from the end to hold the draw, which was really cool to see. 

Aiden and Ev

An organised-sport free Saturday ...

Then obviously you have to just organise your own.  Down to the marina's turf pitch, Evan in goal, Aiden pounding away at it, happy as larks for a couple of hours. Simple strategy really, wait until dad's looking a bit bored, offer a couple of photos - "wouldn't you like to take a few?"  We could go to the marina and you could take some nice photos?"  Back home for more Fifa - homework already done.

Some are kept out ...

Some impossible - top corners.  Sky was beautiful.  Marina water deep aquamarine and full of beautiful fish.
I get to take a look when I go get the strayed ball.

One hundred and four years old

I gave a few kids and the lovely Louise King a lift to the rugby below. She was telling me on the way home that her father in law is a hundred and four. Inconceivable really.  So he was born in 1912, the same year that the Titanic sunk.  This is what Hong Kong looked like in 1912:

I happened across an exhibition of cars photographed by a guy called Langdon Clay, in New York city in the 1970's. You have to wonder how this stuff survives - but it's really cool that it does.  I'm pretty sure the digital wave will be much worse at preservation - too much - too unstable - everyone too preoccupied with the future.  Anyway, among the photos was one of these - a Ford Galaxy 500, 1966 model.  This was the car that we had when we lived in Houston. I can't actually remember it, but I remember seeing a photo of it - it was white.  What I can remember, is driving in it on some expansive trip - we drove to Colorado I think - and seeing the car we had in South Africa on the road, and all of us absolutely roaring with laughter because it was so very very small.  The picture below lacks a scale reference - but it was an absolute monster. Despite being badged "500", it had in fact a 7 litre engine.

Airborn

Rugby again.  What else to do if that is where you are? High speed shutter. The light is what it is.  Rat a tat tat.  Like a Tintin machine gun. To attempt something fractionally different whilst remaining exactly the same, here is a collections from this morning's game - what they have in common is that Aiden's feet are not on the ground in any of them.

Playing flyhalf for the seconds - advance in the midfield.

Airborn into the fullback.

Thumping tackle on their prop.

Kicking over their advancing line, chasing hard...

... and sacking the fullback, who's had to gather off the ground.

Slaying the tiger

Yesterday Sai Kung Stingrays under 13s first team played DEA Tigers.  Aiden was picked as inside centre. For some reason its a bit of a grudge match - possibly because the teams are pretty well matched historically.  Certainly I make a point of showing up ready to run a bit of mouth in the direction of their highly vocal parents ;-).

Most teams have a long warm up practice before a game.  Consequently, if you are a spectator you can see what's coming - and it looked pretty ugly because they had four really big guys - like six foot big guys - and I was watching them smash into the tackle bags and thinking aaiyaaa.  And aaiyaa it turned out to be.

Jules half way through getting smashed - size differential evident as he is crumpled. And definitely high.

The Stingrays spent the entire first half defending between their 22 and their try-line, as the monsters ran at them.  There was no getting the ball back either - their scrum must have weighed 50% more at least, so every time anyone on the pitch knocked on or pushed a pass forward, they'd get the ball back when their scrum destroyed ours - and I mean absolutely destroyed.  Line-outs were better, because although they had a height advantage their hooker was not exactly hitting the William Tell apple - and of course - big fellas are hard to lift.

Nello in the thick of it.  High?!  Neck roll?! WTF!! Where's the ref?

Anyway, towards the end of the first half the defenses eventually buckled, and the black and yellow hordes poured in.  The Stingrays trudged back to the kickoff, looking pretty tatty and down at the mouth, and a minute later one of their Billy Bulldozers had the ball again, and it was back into the 22 for more crunch and stomp.  I was regretting not having headphones to block out the b.s. blood-baying coming from their stands, and it was looking like a long and unpleasant afternoon.  But then, with about a minute left on the clock, Nello playing flyhalf managed to get his hands on the ball, and cleared it down-field with a long and lucky-bouncing kick.  After a bit of a scrap, Stingrays got a scrum, and managed to get the ball out of it while it was being driven back at pace, the scrumhalf drew a couple of players before being monstered, but got a sneaky pass off, and Nello cut back brilliantly to score under the posts.  Max then converted (they had missed theirs earlier) and bizarrely the first half ended 7-5 to the Stingrays.  It was GREAT, and I'm sure there were a few DEA parents looking for headphones of their own.

Nello again, getting toasted by a prop. And one shoulder fraction from high again.

The second half was more of the same - big boys running at them, and eventually scoring and converting - but also starting to get tired - and slowly but surely the tide started to shift as the beef ran out of puff, leaving their light-weights to do the work.  It's the problem of having a few Jonah Lomus - you'd be a twit not to build a game plan around them - but when, for whatever reason, that stops working, you can be well shy a plan B.

Game starting to open up, Aiden distributing (Nello, as usual, dusting himself off on the ground from contact)
- and big boys in the background running out of puff.

The Stingrays might on balance have been smaller - but they are fit and well drilled.  The game went back and forth, both sides coming close on occasion.  Then with about 10 minutes to go, the ball came from Nello to Aiden, who made a great break through their line, drawing  a number of players, and then passing to the absolutely flying speedster and tackle-king Nick Toller on his outside.  There was no way that their fullback could turn and accelerate fast enough, and Nick crossed the line with a couple of Tigers snapping ineffectually at his heels.  Have a finger.  And converted.

Ball in the midfield from Nello...

...and head down and go for the gap, getting the fend ready...

... no need, but now watch the centre on the outside...

... hurdle the ankle-tap, going flatout...

... get your Campese out - ball in both hands, flying past the midfield...

... draw and pass to Nick...

... who is straight past the fullback without a touch, and with far too much gas, goodbye.

Some more back and forth followed, then 3 minutes of brutal every-man-in defending, and have a nice day Tigers.  It was pretty cool.  The real heroes of the day, it needs to be said, were the forwards and loosies who got smashed and stomped on and beaten and bullied for the vast majority of the 60 minutes, but somehow prevailed.  Jake Brunner - featured in the pics with Arki a few posts back - was an absolute demon.  He's not yet a big kid, but he's hyper-fit, competitive, and utterly fearless.  Add to which getting a bit grumpy about the way things are going, and he becomes a complete handful for everyone on the opposing team (and indeed the ref).  Nello was superb, tackled way above his weight, got smashed repeatedly but kept going, and ran the team like an absolute champ.  There are many here not mentioned, kids that you won't know (Finn Bennett, Jake Cornelius, and others) who equally excelled in their individual games; but all in all it was the great team performance that counted - weathering the onslaught, thinking, co-operating and prevailing.  Schoolboy rugby at its best.