Sebastian “hi-YA!”
Today Tess and I met with Sebastian’s teacher to review his progress. Overall I would say that the visit went well. We heard where he was doing well and where he needed to improve. The improvement areas were not surprises, in fact less of an issue than we thought. Afterwards we went down to where Sebastian had his karate lesson. This is always a challenge as the class is large and with all of Sebastian’s friends, easy for him to be distracted. He was s little distracted this week, but we did have quite a special moment when the instructor taught the kids to karate chop think wooden boards. I think that the picture speaks for itself – Sebastian successfully karate chopped the board in half on first try as his proud parents watched. The camera caught the chop just at the right moment.
Staying with the Sebastian category – every Sunday he has been taking rugby lessons. This is a sport that, as my friend Paul says, contains an excess of testosterone and aggression. Wow, did I ever get to see that this past Sunday. Instead of regular practices at the nearby Stanley Ho facilities in Sandy Bay, Pokfulam, we made the trek to Kowloon (along with Adam and Adam’s dad, Chad) for a Hong Kong-wide, little kids rugby tournament. Early in the morning as I stood in line for a coffee, two five year olds tried to pull down the tent that covered the beverage stand. An hour later Seb and I walked along the side of one of the pitches while waiting to be assigned to a team. Sebastian drifted too close to the sideline just as a swarm of kids – already playing in another game – chased the ball on the other side of the line. Seb stepped the wrong way, thereby accidentally and unexpectedly experiencing a full on National Hockey League body-check from the players. “Hey,” I thought, “we’re here to play rugby, not hockey!” Sebastian was very upset, taking a good 30 – 40 minutes to calm down from the collision. However, he pulled himself together enough to play 2.5 games (he subbed for one of the games.) Overall he did okay – ran with the pack, chased the ball or anybody who had the ball. All combined, when you’re almost six years old that in itself makes for good defense. Everyone in the tourney, regardless of how well their team did, received a medal: effort rewarded. Afterwards the four of us dined at McDonald’s then returned to Pokfulam for further playing and a birthday party in the playground. FYI… last week I was in India, this week in Hong Kong, next week back in India, following week in Shanghai and then get to make a trip to the US. Somewhere in there my father visits us.
