David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

Her photo is at the right end of the second row.

What is that logo on Ming's shirt. Is he an avid golfer?

Or is he really a member of the insidious cult of giant-celery worshipers?

The guidebook with the chapter from Ross & me has finally been published:

We wrote the first chapter - the green pages!

Last week we had lunch with Jeremy & Trish, friends visiting from Sydney. You can see that Sarah took a shine to Trish, impressed by her artistic abilities with the wax crayons and paper tablecloths.

Before lunch, Sarah was excited to hear she was going to meet "Uncle Fox" (Jeremy's surname). As she's a great Beatrix Potter fan, I wonder what she expected?

Here's Uncle Fox again, this time with Emma.

Lovely to see them again, and great to hear that Jeremy has his pilot's licence.

All signs of jetlag were gone by now, so everyone was in good shape for a walking day.

We started off by catching a bus to the Wanchai Ferry Pier, then walking back to 'old' Wanchai via the raised walkways. We stopped at Central Plaza to take the lift up to the big lobby on the 46/F, and admirethe view.

Next we walked along the streets and market stalls around Cross Street. The stalls selling live fish (and displaying freshly dismembered fish, hearts still beating) caught the girls' attention. We managed to pick up some gifts for friends, then after a cup of fresh fruit juice we jumped on a number 15 bus to the Peak.

By now it was lunchtime, so we stopped at the Peak Tower for lunch.

Refuelled, it was time to walk around the Peak. Luckily it was a sunny day, so there were great views over the whole city.

Louisa really came to life on this walk, and was full of beans. Both girls ran for a large part of the way, tempted by the promise of an ice-cream around the corner (it's a circular walk...)

From here on there were a set of outdoor exercise stations, all of which the girls needed to try, so they must have been worn out by the end of the day.

We walked back to the Peak Tower, passing a pretty waterfall along the way. Rather than taking the bus back down, we went in style on the Peak Tram. Great neck exercise! Then it was a walk back through Hong Kong Park, to drop our guests off at the hotel.

Sarah hadn't joined us for the first time, as it was her first day back at school after Easter. As I didn't need to head home with her, I had a short walk around Pacific Place, before meeting Dawn and Grace at Peking Garden Restaurant to wait for the Jones to arrive.

There were a few unusual flavours & textures in the dishes, but hopefully nothing too upsetting. Louisa really enjoyed the little white steamed buns that were served with the smoked duck. Kinda chewy though...

She also developed a love of boiled rice on this visit, though at this point we had to remind her it was better eaten than inhaled.

After that Nick and I headed over to Wanchai to cash in the deposits on their Octopus cards and blow it on beer. Alas I was still feeling ill, so it was a good evening but I had to wimp out earlier than I'd have liked.

And that was about the end of the holiday. Grace's big brother picked them up early the next morning, and around 20 hours later they were back home again.

We look forward to a repeat visit - same time next year?

Week 2 begins, with another day at Disneyland. Jessie says she was pleasantly surprised that the Disneyland Hotel was a good, comfortable hotel - she was expecting something much more spartan.

A couple of good reasons to stay there. First we got 2-day passes for the price of 1-day passes. Since you're staying overnight, it makes a lot of sense to check out, drop all the luggage with the concierge, and pop into the park again on the second day to catch anything you've missed (though we ended up spending almost all the second day at the park too!).

The other good reason is that if you have the breakfast at the hotel, the children get to meet the main Disney characters close up.

I met the gang at the staion at around 11, then we all headed over to the park. The first ride of the day was the Buzz Astroblasters, where I think dads secretly have more fun than the kids (and my score was much higher than Nick's!!!).

We went for a drive on the cars, but managed to lose Jessie. Flat tire? Took a wrong turn?

The girls enjoyed the ride, but I'd say that it's not worth waiting for if there's a long queue. Luckily on that day the park wasn't busy at all, so we walked straight on to most rides.

After the cars, Nick & I snuck off to the Space Mountain. Weeeeeeeeeehhh.

In the afternoon we walked over to the Lion King show.

Then it was time to cool off with a lolly. (Great idea these - they're made of some type of jelly, so they don't drip or fall apart like a normal ice-lolly).

Then it was back over to the Pooh ride, where it looks as though Nick had reached a "why am I here?" moment. If you do visit the park for a second day, and don't want to watch the parade again, that's a great time to get on the busier rides without having to queue.

By this time the rides were so quiet it was getting silly. You could just get off a ride, walk around and get right back on again. So we did.

Louisa was getting personal service on the Dumbo ride, with the staff calling out her name over the loudspeakers.

Meanwhile, the big sisters were whizzing around on the carousel.

After that we made it over to the last of the Golden Mickeys shows for the day (we'd tried for the first two, and missed both). Another very well done live show, that went down well with the girls. Plus there was more of that gold shiny tape, just like at Ocean Park!

Time to head for home, and the girls get a ride on shoulders. Check out the shadows to see how high we managed to jump. Jessie, we'll be looking for a much better performance on the next visit. You might also want to work on getting Sasha to use a lighter grip around Nick's neck!

Another day done?

Not yet. Here we are after picking up our bags at the hotel. We went home after this, but I think Nick & Sasha went out again on an expedition to collect Nick's new glasses.

D-Day!

Today's the day the Jones hit Hong Kong Disneyland. I was still feeling a bit ill, so had another day at home to try and keep my germs to myself. Dawn stepped in to help again, babysitting Emma while Grace, Sarah and the Jones Clan went over to the theme park.

(N&J, Do you think this was the highlight of the holiday for Sasha and Louisa?)

All the girls loved the chance to meet the various princesses in person. But as you can see, it can be a bit overwhelming to be so close to your hero. (The actors do a great job of smiling all through the day. I wonder if Disney has a special cheek masseur to keep them in top form?)

The flying elephants proved to be a hit with Louisa, especially with dad acting as a reassuring seatbelt.

At 3pm the parade begins, with floats and characters from all the popular films.

Both families stayed at the nearby Disneyland hotel. That let everyone stay right 'til the end of the day and watch the fireworks.

By day 6, the excitement was all getting too much - for me. I spent the day in bed with a fever.

So, time to bring out the A-team, and let Dawn take Nick & Jessie to her friendly jewellery shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. (There was a visit to Toys R Us on the way, to keep the troops happy.)

Nick had a new pair of glasses made, and a new set of lenses made for his existing pair. Meanwhile, Jessie's more expensive tastes called for something sparkly - a new set of diamond earrings.

The feedback was that they were very impressed with the service at the jewellery shop, and the prices were great too. (N&J, could you elaborate? And what other things happened on the Monday?)

Sunday started with our usual morning trip down to play in the local park. Here we are having a little snack break.

Then we took a taxi to the Central ferry piers, where we met Nick, Jessie, Louisa & Dawn. We took the fast ferry to Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island. After liberal applications of sunscreen and anti-mozzie squares, we set off to walk across the island.

It was a warm day, which made the first part of the walk hot work for our visitors. (Note to self, remind future visitors to leave swap jeans for shorts on a walking day). There was lots of strange plants (eg banana trees) and bugs to see though, and as it's all pedestrian-only it makes a good change of pace from staying in the city.

Here we're cooling off with the help of some stream water, before the last climb to the highest point of the walk.

The highest point, but perhaps also the low point with hot-and-bothered the order of the day. We stopped here for lunch, where Nick's hearty cheese sandwiches helped make everything better.

The walk gets more shady after this, and is downhill too. Combine that with a stop for cold drinks, and by the time we reached Lo So Shing beach everyone's feeling perky again. (With the possible exception of Louisa, who looks in need of an urgent bio-break.)

Ah, that's better.

The beach is one of our favourites, as it rarely gets busy, and it feels a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. That day there were several dead jellyfish washed up - the biggest one we saw is in the bottom left corner of this photo.

When we went paddling, we also found these little fish swimming in the shallows. (Hmm, on youtube the picture is too grainy to see them clearly - you had to be there!)

After some more playing in the sand, we went in for a proper swim, with Sasha having a great splash around. Nick and I swam out to the floating platform for a few minutes peace & quiet, then it was back to the beach and time for everyone to have a shower.

Ah, the best part of the day. All clean, fresh clothes on, and a cool drink.

From the beach, it's a short walk on to Sok Kwu Wan, the other main village on the island. It has lots of seafood restaurants, but we didn't stay to eat this time - something to look forward to on a future trip when the girls are older.

There was quite a crowd around the temple (you can just see it on the right of the photo), as there was a Chinese film crew taking some footage. We passed them and walked on to the little ferry (kai-do), which chugs its way across the channel to Aberdeen on Hong Kong island. I always enjoy it, and it ends up passing all the fishing boats in Aberdeen harbour. The girls were asleep by this time though, so something else to save for a future visit.

From there we popped the Jones in a taxi back to their hotel, and then caught one home ourselves.

Friday's excuse for a big lunch was all the walking we'd be doing. Saturday there was no excuse, just gluttony at the TOTT's tea buffet, top floor of the Excelsior hotel in Causeway bay. Oh, with unlimited bubbly wine too.

We had a good sized group, so luckily we got the room with the good view.

No free-flowing bubbly for the children, but they had their own bit of indulgence - a chocolate fountain you could dip marshmallows into.

I think this video can probably be called 'licking your plate the posh way"? Mmmmmm, chocolate!

Ok, better do something "educational" and "creative" to keep the parents off our backs. (Lara, Mark & Jasmine's elder daughter is on the left of the shot).

Jolly hard work though, so it's a good idea to make regular visits to the dessert table before anyone starts feeling faint.

These three handsome gentlemen first met in Hong Kong 1989, when we were all young and innocent. Less hair, more belly seems to have been the main result of passing time.

They finally stopped serving food, so we had to leave.

From the hotel we waddled over to the nearby Victoria Park, where the children could run around the playground, and watch the model boat racing.

The park isn't far from where Nick used to live, so we set off to see if he could find it. No problem - here's the very building! The road layout wasn't any different, but Nick's comments were that the streets and alleys were much cleaner than he remembered.

From there we took a cab back to Bellis Mansions, where the artist-in-residence produced these striking likenesses. So it's true, all white people do look the same!

It was good to see Sasha and Louis feeling comfortable enough to make themselves at home. Sasha in particular excelled herself by staying the night with us - her first sleepover ever! Very brave to do that in the middle of a holiday in a very strange country. I think the parents were more worried than Sasha, but she went straight to sleep and slept right through. Bravo!