UK Trip in August

This is all out of order, but what the heck.  I just want to put here, so I know where it is, a couple of photos of our trip to the UK in Aug/Sep and the itinerary.  There are more photos at Picasa here.

This is early morning in Snowdonia, on a walk to the top of the hill, from where we can see -- but don't climb -- Mt Snowdon

Walking from our "Hut" at Pen-y-Gwyrd, which sounds nothing like that in Welsh.  I can't even say it now, even after a lot of practice....

And this is a Basil-like creature, helping the groundkeeper at Blair Castle. 

"Over here, boss, you've missed a bit!"

This is us on September 7th, at School House, with the Housemaster, Mr Thornby and John first time in his uniform

And this one has nothing to do with the above, just that I came across it.  It's Bill Tweddell -- then the Australian Consul General in Hong Kong and an old mate of mine -- we were both in the same Foreign Affairs intake.  And that's Elmer, just about to start our new Honda mower for the first time (4/3/04).  I ought to take a photo to show what the hedge is like now.  Elmer was not too keen on the mower at the beginning, before he tried it, thinking that it would be fine to cut the lawn with hand shears or whipper-snipper.  But once he used it -- and it has power to the wheels! -- he was a convert.  It's still going strong.  

Bill went off to be Australian Ambassador to Vietnam and is now FAS in the NEAsia Division of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra.

And that's Nikkie's butt.  Looks much the same today....

The first postcard from Anne & Bub

This is actually the first postcard received from Anne & Bub, on their latest European sojourn (sent 6 Oct, received here 21 Oct...), the second one received is in the Post below.
This one's from Alhambra in Spain and seat of Islamic power (Moorish Spain) as Anne points out.

Click on the images to enlarge them.....

Postscript note for Anne: 

you don't need that long address.  All you need is:

9 Siena One

Discovery Bay

Hong Kong

Another postcard in from Anne

Here it is front and back!  Received today in Hong Kong:

Click to enlarge

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Anne!

A couple of photos for yez:

19 May 2003, Mt Ainslie Walk

Graduation 09

Marcus in full "mooching" mode.... well, it's a Vizla, really, but close enough!

Have a great day.  Still to see some post from you?!!

Yabuli Ski Resort in Northeast China, February 2010

John and Jing in Yabuli, February 2010

I've added this photo as part of process of writing up for Anne what to do to post photos and comments.  It's a rather nice one, taken in Yabuli ski resort in Heilongjiang, north-east China, over Chinese New Year this year, mid February.  The temperatures were around minus 20-27 all the time.... Snow was great, crisp and soft, but runs rather limited.

This was taken on a day we had "off" from skiing and we went for a walk to a neighbouring resort, up hill and down dale, a pretty and fun walk.

Photo again, with iPhone.
I wrote about the trip on my other blog (Battle of Tours), here.
I also took advantage of the visit to post some pro-nuclear propaganda here. (comparing the clear air we saw with the mucky air of 30 years ago).

Flowers & Butterflies

Just wanted to post a few photos of flowers round our park, and some lovely butterflies.  We don't get many "nasties" here -- flies or poisonous spiders -- just lots of tropical life, birds galore, wonderful butterflies and flowers, gorgeous dragonflies over the fishpond.  I'm sorry I don't know the names of the most of the flowers, thought Mutti probably does....  All the photos taken by my iPhone at home or in the Park

Canna Lily

A rose from our garden in the "music room"

Butterfly in "Central Park", Siena One

The "Hei Pak" butterfly (I don't know the English...)

Re-starting at the "Family Blog"

I hear today from Anne that they'd like to post some entries on this, the "family blog".  Hurrah!

That reminds me that this blog exists, and that I ought to do some update.

The first bit is copy of letter that we received from King's School in Canterbury back in February, offering John a place at Year 9, what they call "Shell" in English Public Schools (Year 10 is called "Remove").  Reason for the name "Shell"?    I could tell you, but I'm in a bit of a rush.  I assume Google would enlighten if one's interested....

Here's the letter.  We heard separately from the Registrar, Rory Reilly -- a lovely tall elegant fellow, with just a touch of Irish in the cultured voice -- that he got 100% in the maths section: praise to Jing and John for the hard prep work they put in here in Hong Kong -- finding, btw, that the maths for this test was more advanced than the maths being done here at Discovery College which is following the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Also, BTW, John got acceptances from Abingdon Boys' School, near Oxford, and Lancing College West Sussex.  Both were lovely schools that we'd visited in November 09 as part of the research and which impressed us a lot with their academic, sporting, music and drama courses.  Much better than here in Hong Kong, we thought, and better even than Canberra Grammar, a school I'd enjoyed a lot.  Time will tell, though.  John is due back for his first half-term holiday this coming Sunday 17th October.