David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

We are regular visitors to Hong Kong's parks and playgrounds. It's a good chance to let the girls run around and tire themselves out. (If you're reading this from outside HK, remember that our flat is 772 sq feet - and that's the gross measurement! Staying inside for very long drives us all nuts.) Last weekend was fairly typical...

Saturday morning we usually head down to Belcher's Bay park, which has a good playground. We've been going there since soon after Sarah was born, so we recognise lots of the other children there. On this visit we also saw one of Sarah's classmates Pak Lam (the little boy in red & white shirt and glasses) for the first time.

Then in the afternoon we went out for a walk, and ended up at the grassy area near the Merton. Earlier in the week we'd been saying how Sarah has lost interest in bubbles, after demanding bubbles accompany almost every outdoor trip for the last two years. You'll see Emma managed to blow her first bubbles here, so the next two years begins!

Then on Sunday after Victoria's birthday party we went to Hong Kong Park. We paid a short visit to the fountain:

Notice any family resemblance?

Then on to the big playground near the Kennedy Road edge of the park. Sarah was very energetic - not too surprising given the amount of ice-cream she ate during the party! Here she is on the fast slide:

Then on the balancing steps - Maisy, her gym class teacher at kindergarten, would be proud.

And finally, Bellis airways take to the air with a rousing rendition of the Little Einsteins theme tune (which was played any time we got in the car during our trip to the UK last year. I don't think I can ever forget it).

... are all up on flickr.

We've just got back from holiday. Mum and Dawn joined us, and  friends Stanley & Tammy with their two boys & parents overlapped their visit with ours, so there was quite a crowd.

Here's where we stayed. We'd originally booked two adjoining rooms, but were given an upgrade to this villa when we checked in. There's a living room and basic kitchen on the ground floor, then up a level to the main room (they squeezed a cot & extra mattress in for the girls after this), mum & Dawn stayed on the next level, and there's a balcony on the roof. Apart the risk of Emma taking a nosedive down the staircase, it was great!

As well as climbing up & down stairs, Emma's got plenty of walking practice in during the holiday.

Ernest and Cyrus vie for Emma's attention. Ernest uses the 'sensitive, caring' approach and tries to establish communication, which at this age is raspberry-flavoured. Cyrus takes the Hong Kong approach by trying to impress her with his fancy mobile phone.

Emma does her sealion impression.

Every morning a couple of baby elephants would come and play next to the breakfast area. This one had a good trick where it will take paper money from your hand and put it in the trainer's pocket.

Playing on the beach after dinner.

The Wongs put on a talent show.

More photos on flickr.

On last summer's trip to Milford Haven I was lucky to catch up with some old school friends. We called in to visit Mark Jones' mum & dad, and got Mark's phone number. Turned out he was arranging a party where Peter Morgan and Wendy Trew came along too:

The fuzzy spots on the photos are the Pembrokeshire mist he kindly arranged, to give me that authentic summertime feeling. It was great to see them again - I think I first met Mark and Peter aged about 7, when we all joined cub scouts at around the same time!

I also bumped into Sharon Jones in Tesco, and saw Robin Copley's dad while in Dale. He says that Robin is still in Pembrokeshire too.

We didn't see anyone else from school on this trip, but on our 2004 visit we were a bit more mobile and made it down to visit Huw Thomas at his home near Southampton. Here's a photo of Huw and his daughter Ellora from that trip:

Take a look at the 1979 photo of the Grammar School staff & pupils to see how we've changed.

Here's wishing you a healthy, wealthy and happy year of the pig.

We had a busy New Year's day, cooking in the morning:

We took the finished article along to Yuen Long for the New Year pot-luck meal with Grace's family, and finished the day at Angela's, to wish her a Happy New Year.

Nope...

Elizabeth sent this funny bath toy for Emma's first birthday. It sings, but when you turn it over it changes to sound as though the toy penguin has its head underwater. I'm not sure who's had most fun playing with it - me or Emma!

You can see it in this video, along with a few other clips of Emma's first year of bathtimes.

We tried an afternoon visit to Disneyland yesterday, collecting Sarah from Kindergarten after lunch and catching the train out to Disney for a couple of hours. It went well - ie no tantrums when it was time to leave! And although we only stayed a couple of hours, we got to see lots of things as the queues were either short or non-existent.

If you look at the photos below, you can see that Sarah still has mixed emotions about meeting the characters. While it all seems good in theory, when she's standing right next to them the awe takes over ...

We paid Mark & Jasmine a visit on Sunday to see Maya for the first time. She's a cheerful young lady, full of smiles. Here she is with Grace & Jasmine:

The girls all had fun playing in the garden, and Mark shows definite potential to be a 'Creative Kids' supply teacher: