David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

If the weather is fine, we end up at a beach most weekends. Deepwater Bay is the nearest, so it's a popular choice. Here's Emma on a recent visit:

We were lucky to have Jeff spend his fiftieth birthday here in Hong Kong. Here are some photos from the big day, featuring Jeff, Minnie, Engee, Angela, Boots, Belinda, Grace, Andrew, Gonard, Andrew & Mei-Ling, Michael, David, and several glasses of beer.

Featuring Ji-Ching, Lok-Him, Ernest, Naomi, Dawn Ching-Ching, Wing-Fong, Sai-Bee's younger brother, his nana, See-See, Victoria, Karen, Sai-Bee, Charlotte, Cheuk-Wan, Kelly, Boots, Engee, Ashley, Angie, Elena, Angela, Andrew, Sarah's kindergarten class, Kam, Vince, Kaman, Rem, Donald's wife, Stew, Donald, and Jeff.

A couple of old videos from when Sarah was getting the hang of blowing bubbles. The first is from May 2005:

and the second from June 2005 (and yes, despite appearances she did own other clothes too!):

This week was Sarah's last week before the summer holiday. The teachers arranged a morning 'swimwear fashion show', followed by lots of splashing around. Here are the parents and pupils strutting their stuff on the catwalk:

After the fashion show it was time to put the swimming costumes to good use! Si-Ming's mum was first down the slide, followed by all the children:

Then we put away the camera and joined in the mayhem - we spent the next 30 minutes with everyone throwing water at everyone else. Great fun!

Yvonne, Engee, Andrew, Dawn, Karen, Kelly, Jack, Cheuk-Wan, Angela, Kam assuming the usual pose, Victoria, Lara, Mark, Maya, Jasmine, Ling-ling, Naomi, Benny, Cindy, Chiu:

First audition:

Semi-final:

Final:

Interview on the Today Show:

Singing on the Today Show:

Singing Caruso:

Yesterday we went along to Disney for the first time in a couple of months.

Sarah had fun in the Mr Potatohead part of the shop. I think you're supposed to buy them after you make them, but...

We bumped into some friends. Mimi was born in 97, so gets the free pass.

A quick photo stop before we left. Note the upturned collar, "so I look like Snow White". Vince, what's your explanation?

This meeting with Minnie caused some consternationlater, as when we reached the exit, Minnie was already there having photos taken with Mickey and guests. Now the exit is the opposite end of the park from where we took the photo with Minnie, and we walked straight from one to the other, so....

Luckily the explanation that Minnie probably was missing Mickey after seeing Sarah, and must have run faster than us seemed to go down ok.

From 2005...

Victoria's 2nd birthday party.

Angela demonstrates the results of formative years spent watching Punch & Judy shows on the beach at Southend.

Finally, Vince & Kam discuss the effects of mole-positioning on their fate.

The last two weeks I've been a regular commuter to Yuen Long. I've been helping Dawn to paint a flat that belongs to Dawn and Grace, and that they're getting ready to sell. It's one floor of a village house, south of Yuen Long.

Hot work, but the end result looks good.