Round about the silly season

 A woeful patch of two plus months - doing a very quick bit of catching up here - and then the new year stuff will flow:

December was a fantastic month - no travel means breakfast in bed with Ev (Aiden likes to get up and have breakfast whilst illicitly accessing some or other screen media).

Weekends hanging out with friends at the short bar.

Not everyone bothered by the cooler weather - Malcolm coming in on his sharky boat (seriously quick rib this one) making the girls smile with some substantial bronzed pec.

Aiden was playing some great rugby at flyhalf for the Stingray's second team, running well, passing well, kicking well...

... and tackling well.  So well in fact that he was rewarded with a promotion to the first team, whereafter he had a really horrible time being a sub and playing in the course of one tournament, lock, centre and wing.  (Much to his delight he has now returned to the second team where he is again enjoying being the flyhalf).

Great excitement - Granny Rose arrived, a delight.  We did a lot of stuff - I failed to take pictures of the very vast bulk of all of it - seemed like a distraction from having her.

Evan, having discovered that he is something of  a tackle missile on the rugby pitch, announced that he was going to buy a pair of goal-keeping gloves with a gift voucher he received.  This he duly did.  So when the annual soccer tournament came around, and he arrived at the game with his new gloves, the coach had no trouble deciding to put him on as the keeper.  Ev rewarded that decision by keeping a clean sheet throughout the four games - and he made plenty of saves - some bone crunching ones - including a penalty save.  His team ended up winning the tournament,  in no small part thanks to his efforts, downing the favourites in the final.  Rose and I were terribly chuffed - Ev was quietly much more so.  Here a ball comes whizzing towards him from a close range shot, through the traffic...

...but it too gets stopped (despite eyes being closed in both frames - must have been open at some point).

The APAC schools team with their winners' medals and some big smiles (Ev, characteristically pigeon-toed, but no birdie that - he'll knock you down). 

Then it was Christmas - that great delight of prezzies, double bonus that granny was visiting ...

...and that Santa had managed to squeeze a table-tennis table into the haul of loot.  Dad, it should be noted, is king of the blue-top, and not looking in danger of being toppled any time soon.

Being at home

Means being normal - and it is so utterly lovely.  On Sunday night, after a pretty lazy day, we went to Hang Hau for dinner at the Italian restaurant - you can say that, "the" Italian, because there really only is one.  The food was fantastically mediocre - just what was expected - and we got to check out all the beautiful bicycles on the way in.

Monday morning, great excitement - year 4 and year 6 camp - which means that both the boys will be away this week.  Frustratingly for me, I'm in HK - though it was cool to be part of dropping them off.

Modern kids, wheelie bags ffs - what happened to lugging your rucksack?  Aiden and Ev ready to go - just stopping to pick up Liam whose folks are traveling this week. 

The wheelie brigade... I was thinking to my self, what is this for - ah, training for modern life - pulling your wheelie over rough terrain - like you might find outside the Airport in Lombok (certainly no longer in Manila or Hyderabad or some such, all of which now have the ultra mod bling bling internationals.  Weather could not be better; crystal clear - 22 degrees.

Looking for Aiden to say goodbye.  Where is the child?  Of course, on the roof of the school having a quick game of tennis ball soccer.

Sunday black and whites of the boys

Vidhu Shekhar - CFA Institute's first India Country Head

CFA has opened an office in India for the first time in it's 50 something years - Vidhu has been appointed country head.  Lovely human being who you would enjoy; software engineer, IIM Graduate; wildly interested in everything.  He was here for lunch, and I grabbed a quick patio portrait; Ev as assistant. I changed the original to this one - befitting of smiling and full-of-humour person. 

Saturday morning - Mustangs (Aiden's team) vs Hong Kong Cricket Club.

Could not have been a more perfect Saturday morning - bright, cool, pleasant breeze.  Aiden with my old bat - my tenth birthday present - sanded, new handle.  Makes me smile.

Aiden steaming in.  The opposition was not up to it; a very one-sided affair.  In case you are wondering about the massive no-ball - they bowl from a shortened bowling crease until under 13.  Now under 11, so it can be pretty lively for the batsmen.  No pads needed; the ball is a slightly squidgy shiny plastic with a pronounced seam - swings like mad - but delivers a stinger at worst.

Hyderabad Hotel Spaces

The Trident in Hyderabad - part of the new brutalist city; not India feeling, stark and clean; nice lines in the wrong place.

Subterranean reflections

Macy and Louisa on the Sunday before all the events kicked off on Monday; without going into it - lots of moving parts and risks and unknowns.  They could run a small country in their spare time it seems.  I slept intermittently the weeks before, thanks to them; would have been completely sleepless without.

Palpable relief; Macy and Vidhu on the train in the HK airport on the way home.  Well earned smiles.

Combat duck to water

So it turns out that Ev really liked his first rugby tournament.  For a dreamy kid, there was no holding back.  From the kick-off he chases really hard - way ahead of team mates - and just simply goes for the ball.  You can see old green shoes below calling out a warning, but grrr, too late, as the Evinator arrives... could not get a clear pic through all the traffic.

Each team got pretty much the same treatment; kick, chase, attack the ball. Literally.  Everyone sort of stands around a bit unsure of what to do.  What you cant really see from the pics below is that the group of red guys ends up traveling backwards - such is the ferocity of the terrible Evinator :-)