Jordan and Courtney

Kak in the parking lot

The good people of the Hong Kong government have decided that the slope outside the back of the house is no longer safe and needs to be replaced.  Mmm.  Six months long this party will be - replete no doubt with jackhammering, compressors, and eventually the dreaded cement mixers.  What I did think was cool however, was the engineering approach - no rush man - just do the thing properly.  The first thing that happens is a wall gets built - to keep bits and pieces from arriving in the parking lot.  But it takes a bite out of the parking lot, of course, so everyone goes from having two parking spaces to having one.  This does not stop some of the people still parking two cars (?!) - but fortunately for us our other car is such an absolute banger that it gets parked in the bushes down the drive.

 

Behind the wall looks like this - a grid of scaffolding.

Six months requires a properly set up spot though - little house up there for your stuff, as you finish the wall.

Kids hit the city and the markets

Aiden and Daisy hit the city with Jordan, and had an absolute blast.  This is "pepper lunch" - a Korean fave of Aiden and Jordan's, and which Daisy was up to, and then into.  You either get tongues or fingers, sometimes both.

Gangster I chune you - Daisy and Aiden in the markets - new sunnies to look cool

We collectively concede that Aiden and Jordan are the bosses of bargaining strategy. Here one of the market aunties gets to find out that not all gweilos are visiting.

  

Hong Kong's finest institution - the party junk

Nearly all of us - missing you - and Ethan and Emma-Daisy here for a few weeks from SA

Daisy and Ethan kit up in their Hawaii shirts - its a party junk.

Angie gives her boy some love - chilling on top of the junk

Evan and Daisy spot Ethan's feet dangling down, irresistible tickle

Hawaii shirt gone (where?) - Ev catches some time out of the sun

All grown up and just a delight to be with - Jordan, Dylan and Courtney share a laugh

Rory, Casey and Christian - looking cool in their party shirts in the jungle

The space between the trips ...

I feel that I should have photos of London, but I don't.  This is not because I don't like London, I love it (and look how sensibly it voted in the great Brexit travesty).  It's just that I was too busy thrilling myself by doing things like leaving my wallet in taxis.  Amazingly, and to my utter delight, the wallet was returned to the hotel I was dropped off at by the driver who found it some time later.  Lovely human being.  It took me a while to work out exactly how stuffed I was without it: very.

All over and sorted now, and smiling at the week ahead in Hong Kong.  Some stuff to deal with for sure, couple of night calls - never great - a few anxieties - but then a long weekend with a junk trip, bring it, bring it.

On the patio - so cool to be back - and especially with all the cousins from SA back home, and Polly from Brooklyn NY

Hisako-san and Jacques strike a pose on the pavement in the city.

William Boivin looking damn cool with a cup of coffee, waiting for a meeting to start.

And the reason that one rides - to have a cool shirt with green flames on it.  Mamil from hell.  30 degrees at 5.50am.

The best of US

There is a whole lot to love about the US - and I confess I was super-happy to hear that you're contemplating it.  Its such a great blend of hard working, completely nuts, wildly beautiful, bizarrely detached, and just all round interesting.  This is the Sours family - just the loveliest of the loveliest people (missing young Henry from this photo, and with a sadly obscured lady Victoria.  Henry is at least 6 foot something, and he's 14) .  This is somewhere in the middle of their garden - which is absolute paradise.  

Charlottesville's finest include a few not featured here - but thankfully in the pic below with Tom Sours we have the inestimable Andrew John Jenkins - delightful person.  For me hanging with these two people is a straight delight.  I hope you get to meet them one day - they will put a smile on your face.

 

Off the beaten track - Charlottesville

 

Loved all these - the stuff that people don't think is worth looking at - the stuff not on the tourist map.  And it was a delight being out of the cities for once, just walking the backstreets of suburbs and strip malls - summer in the small-town South.  And then such a delight being home again after weeks - Chicago, Washington, Charlottesville, New York, London.