Not much sleep

Regular readers (all four of you) know that long haul flights are dangerous for me, stirring me up inside. This flight was no exception. Having just read "The Hiding Place" I was interested to watch "Inglorious Basterds," a fictitious story about revenge on the Nazis during WW2. This brilliant movie was made by Quentin Tarantino. It has a dramatic, vengeful climax and one has to wonder what Quentin Tarantino was thinking when he made this film. While light on the surface it's actually a complicated film and controversial/provocative: film goers and critics alike are often offended by making light of weighty subjects. (And I'm not suggesting Tarantino does that but others have accused.) Terrific production, excellent dialogue, but violent (and that's after it was no doubt toned down for Cathay audiences!)

Then I fell asleep, not for long enough, listening to Cathay's Classical Moods. Very therapeutic and reflective collection of inspiring classical pieces that coincidentally spanned my life and took me back to the days of sailing at the RCYC, The Farm and elsewhere. I emerged from the flight not that rested but very pensive.

Drawing from Carys

I am on my way to the US for a business trip. Upon announcing to the troops today in the flat, "okay I'm leaving now," Carys bounced (or should I say skipped, as she does) into the room handing me the sketch below as a little going away gift. Looks like a sunset, tree and birds. There are two faces in the sky, no doubt Carys and me together somewhere.

I don't feel like a very good parent these days. In addition to being tired ~ and I know you're all saying that I'm always tired ~ the kids are at an age where their pushing my buttons regularly. Often my response isn't WJWD. Meanwhile, my flight is leaving 2.5+ hours late. We've boarded and are waiting at the gate now to depart. Cathay had to change planes twice. The second plane came from London and had "extra security checks" according to the pilot. I got a comp upgrade to biz class so hopefully I can get caught-up on my sleep!

Sela’s addition

Below is Sela's addition to the artwork and departure gifts. Notice the very tidy printing!

Kitchen Critter

Tonight when Sebastian and I took out the recycling, we discovered one of our kitchen residents hiding in the bottom of the recycling bin. At first Sebastian was a bit startled. Then I explained how much Tess and I adore these little guys, who are like pets who surface every few days in the kitchen. We carefully took the recycling bin back upstairs after which I took the picture below. We've also decided to get a composter in the form of a worm farm. My sister, Penny, thought this was a great idea but reminded me to feed the worms when we're away. Unfed, the worms will escape in search of food. In what I thought was an unrelated topic I told Penny about finding our kitchen pet in the recycling bin. She replied, "Oh yeah, there you go… the geckos will take care of the worms!"

Illegally Parked in Central

This chap illegally parked on Lyndhurst Street in Central, a side street that run under one of the escalator overpasses. While off doing his errands, someone dropped a heavy item onto his car from a window above. I am not sure the item, but it went right through the moonroof into the driver's seat. I am also not sure if the drop was intentional or by accident. Something tells me it was intentional because Hong Kongers are notorious for dropping items out of windows. A few minutes after I passed by a tow truck came to haul away the sports car. Chances are the owner wouldn't get much pity out of the police since he was illegally parked!

Absolute PROOF of Global Warming!

I don’t laugh out loud often but when I saw this I couldn’t help myself. Meanwhile, the “greening of the children” continues at Kennedy school. This week when Sebastian had his class Christmas Party, each student had to bring their own plate and cutlery made of recyclable material. The teacher also tried another trick this term: the kids don’t sit in desks they sit in pods/teams of 5 – 6 around a table. One day the teacher put a box in the centre of each table and instructed kids to put all garbage from that day in the box. At the end of the day the class examined the accumulated garbage with the teacher asking such questions as, “what’s acceptable… what’s re-usable… what’s sustainable… how long can we keep this up?” Truly amazing.

Syncing Up

Here's a picture of two friends syncing-up in Cityplaza, the location of my office. As you can see, the mall has tremendous festive decor dancing everywhere.

What I'm especially excited about is syncing Tess' calendar with her Gmail account. "I have a Gmail account?" Tess is asking? Yes, I made it for her way back in 2006 so she could read blogs that were password protected. I don't think it caught on. Anyway, since the arrival of Tess' iPhone, our Calendars have been colliding (or not as the case may be) and all week I've been unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to sync her Hotmail calendar with her iPhone. I finally figured out this can be done via her Gmail. Adding the online calendar also boosts the iPhones calendar functionality. Now Tess can send/receive invites and we'll have a master schedule online, making it much easier to sync-up.

Jasper Gets Stitches

Around 5:30 pm Jasper is headed one way for a bath but distracted the other way by Carys telling him it's show time. As JJ spins around he loses his balance, slips, and on his way to the floor cuts his head on the edge of a door frame. I was at work in the middle of a conference call. Tess was at a party with Sebastian. Gary & Liza handle the situation expertly: assess damage (lots of bleeding), conclude hospital visit in order, inform Tess and I. Tess gets to Queen Mary Hospital pretty quickly where Gary is waiting with Jasper.

On my way home Tess and I text back and forth and conclude I should bring: mini DVD player, movies, headphones, sweater for Tess, JJ's special blanket but no food for him in case he throws up while getting stitches. I arrive at the hospital and by the time we leave, JJ's been there 5.5 hours. Queen Mary Emergency was chock 'a block with sick people and a few resuscitations. Honestly, it seemed that every 5th person I saw was preparing to throw-up or just had thrown up.

Despite freezing, Jasper did not have a good experience – who would? Wrapped in a sheet so he could not move, three of us had to hold him down for three stitches. By the end of it Jasper was getting quite angry. Sitting in the hallway after the sutures, we had a little talk about listening, paying attention and being obedient. Who knows if the message got through. Back home we left a note for Sebastian to please be quiet when he wakes up.

Once Jasper was in bed, Tess crawls into bed while I walk around to turn off a few lights, including the Christmas tree lights… only to find Sebastian has put his Spy Kit Motion Detector in the tree JUST IN CASE someone should start putting presents under the tree. I turn off the lights – the alarm goes on. Classic!

… meanwhile

… the trick is making sure Jasper now gets some sleep!