Loyalty (T)

Family (T)

On Wednesday I flew from Tokyo to Hong Kong. It is an unusal flight for me as of the tens of trips I seem to make each year, I can only remember a handful of times when I've flown between two cities without a personal link in either. As if to rectify this, in Hong Kong I bumped into my Auntie Nancie and my cousin Judy!

Incredibly, I actually bumped into them twice, once in the morning when I was between two meetings and then at the end of the day.

We ended up having dinner before my trip back to Perth. The photo here is the former British Army Barracks in the Hong Kong New Territories (the bit away from the main built up area, before you get to China proper). A Nancie and Judy are staying there, the buildings are being used by a charity called Crossroads which brings together gifts of goods with the right needy people - Jumpers to Kazhakstan and T-shirts to Phillipines etc. This sort of system was lacking for handling all the non-cash gifts recieved by aid agencies at the time of the Asian Tsunami, much of which were wasted.

Happy Birthday Eddie (T)

Our favourite little blonde boy is two today.



Here sharing a kiddi-chino (or something like that) with his cousins at the Perth Zoo.



Later that same day, recovering from a rainshower and watching some educational documentary at Perth Library.

Beach (T)

Anita and Eddie with James, Ali & Hannah on one of the perth beaches.

BOPIT (T)

For my birthday Anita gave me the game 'bopit', which must be played to be undertsood but is an addictive reflex based game where you must quickly respond to the game's commands to "twist it", "spin it", "flick it", "bop it" etc.

Here cousin James settles down for a long game. (Though it wasn't).

Sebi (T)

Sebi is 3 months old on Thursday, and is growing into a lovely, placid, little boy, occasionally terrorised by his elder brother.

He likes to sit in his chair, near the fishpond created by his Opa, or to be held in his arms.

Swaddle and Clamshell (T)

Anita was taught the age old technique of swaddling by one of her English friends; the photo here is in our flat in London. It helps baby Sebastian to sleep well without waking himself up with those jerky movement that babies do. It seems obvious to do it, but we didn't swaddle Eddie.




Into the 21st century...When I first saw those 'clamshell' phones in America a few years ago I thought they looked silly and ungainly and couldn't see the point. However last week I got one for my Oz mobile, and am now a convert. Very satisfying to open to answer a call or snap shut to finish it. No messing around with key lock, just close the lid.

Here's a 3D demo of my new phone.

I also put a couple of further 'traffic' photos below.

Traffic (T)

In London, I would often go on a weekend with Eddie and watch the traffic on busy Baker St or Marylebone road.



Given how busy the roads are, the lesson he seems to draw from this is that cars are inevitably banked up together in long lines.....this is Eddie's standard construction when he plays with his toy cars.

Perth (T)

We made the trip from London to Perth last week, largely successfully. From Singapore we were on Qantas, a short and pleasant leg after the slug from Heathrow to Singapore; though as we came into land they played 'I still call Australia home' about 7 times over the speakers. As there was no immediate flight out, we stayed, and have enjoyed the sunshine, grandparents and relaxed suburban lifestyle.




I am currently in Sydney working, the others are still in Perth, and thus it is probably only fair to say that Anita may well have enjoyed 'I still call Australia home'.
If you don't know it, you couldn't possibly imagine.