David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

Since it was going to be another day of walking, a hearty Dim Sum lunch was called for. It's hard to beat the Dim Sum at City Hall, so that was our first destination. You can walk most of the way there from the Marriott via shopping malls and raised walkways - in fact if you don't, you end up stuck at road level not able to cross the road!

We got to City Hall around 11:30. Many of the big tables already had a squattter in place - the unlucky office employee sent out early to stake their claim to a table. If we'd arrived much later we'd have faced a long queue, but at 11:30 we had no problem getting a table.

Sasha & Louisa were very cautious about the food - they couldn't even be tempted by the usually irresistible mango pudding. Cha Siu Bauu were well received though, and brought out an impressive burst of chopstick proficency from Louisa:

Stuffed full of dim sum, Nick made the case for the benefits of a big belly. This had Sarah & Sasha vying to prove whose belly was bigger.

Enough of the food - time to shop. Well, after a short break in the City Hall Garden for a game of hide & seek. With everyone successfully seeked, we strolled on at a leisurely pace towards Central, making our first stop in Li Yuen Street to pick up some gifts for the folks back home.

Jessie also wanted to buy a digital camera, so we popped in to Fortress to grab one of those. She described it as "Our fastest purchase ever". The store is very near to the start of the Mid-levels escalator, so we rode that up the hill, until we were up at the same level as the Zoological garden.

We paid the monkeys a visit, then headed for the main attraction - the ice-cream stand. If you look carefully at this picture you can see Louisa's show in the bottom right corner.

Louisa and Sasha were adopting the patent-pending posture, guaranteed to keep colourful lolly drips off white shirts.

After running up and down this wall a few times, we walked over to Hong Kong Park, stopping at the playground. Are the children looking tired yet?

A short break for everyone to freshen up, then time for that institution, Friday Beer. This week's venue was the Marriott poolside Fish Bar. Food, beer, and Lego - what more can you ask for?

The evening went well, but the girls need to work on their beer-drinking skills. Two pints and Louisa was out for the count, with Sasha not far behind.

Day two and we're off to Ocean Park, catching the bus from Admiralty, a short walk from the Marriott. When we arrived we had some time to kill before the ice-skating show started, so we had a wander around the aviary, then sat down to cool off with an ice-cream.

Then it was time to head over to the show.

The video starts with the show, moves on to the arctic tent, has a brief loo stop with lots of gold tape, and finishes with a chip infusion.

We stayed on after the show for a quick photo with a couple of the skaters (unfortunately not the blonde twins from the trapeze - you'd have seen Nick and me in the photo if they'd been there)

From there we set off up the long escalator to get to the dolphin show in time for a seat. Except half way up we heard the announcement it was already full... Still, we managed to stand at the back, and put the girls on shoulders so they could see most of it.

Next an important stop for Louisa, who is convinced she will be a mermaid sometime in the very near future.

Just after the mermaid is the big aquarium, which kept us busy for quite a while. Then the stop for chips, essential fuel for any British day out. After that the plan was to catch the cable car, but the queue was the longest I've seen it - the whole park was very full as it was school holidays in Hong Kong, and there were lots of mainland visitors too.

So instead we went up to see the seals and sealions (can you remember how to tell the difference?), before catching the escalator back down the hill. More crowds, but it didn't take too long. Fortunately, they all seemed to belong to tour buses, so there was only a very short queue for a taxi.

We caught the taxi back to our flat. It was a chance for everyone to catch up with Grace (who'd been working hard while we weren't)

And for Sasha to get some first hand experience of the cramped living conditions in Hong Kong

The first full day finished, it was time for all to veg out in front of the TV.

Nick, Jessie, Sasha and Louisa arrived in the afternoon, looking remarkably perky after their long flight. We took a taxi from the airport back to their spartan accomodation at the Marriott, with the taxi driver grumbling about the long wait.

Then headed straight out to Hong Kong Park to give the girls some exercise and sunlight, hoping it would help with jetlag. After a walk through the park and a play in the playground area, we walked down to Queensway to catch a tram. Not the brightest of ideas as it was around 6:30, so the trams were full and there was lots of traffic (and so exhaust fumes).

We finally managed to get on a tram, and spent the next few minutes wiggling our way along so we could get off on Johnston Road. By this time the troops were getting hungry, so we popped into the local greasy chopstick for some BBQ meat. No English menus, but a very friendly waitress who basically told me what we should have. Probably our cheapest meal of the holiday, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, with Sasha polishing off most of a bowl of rice.

From there we went down to Wanchai MTR, bought everyone Octopus cards to use for the rest of the holiday, then took the MTR back to the Admiralty and their hotel.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

We visited Mark, Jasmine, Lara & Maya today. Maya's a bundle of fun. Here she is in action, then in a quieter moment:

I think the highlight for Emma was the red Emma-sized pony she found in Lara's room. She starts off well, takes a fall, but in best horse-riding tradition heads straight back to the saddle. Sound effects by Lara.

Shortly before the burp you hear Sarah say "I very tall". And it's true she seems to have had a growth spurt in the last month or so. She was the same height as Lara a few months back, but is around two inches taller now.

The Lazy Suzacam whirls into action again, this time at Dim Sum lunch with several of Grace's family. We'd just been up to the graveyard for our Ching Ming duties, and stopped here for lunch before heading home.

Benny & Cindy arranged a lovely party for Victoria's 4th birthday, and kindly invited us along. Aiyaaa, four already - it's hard to pretend the years aren't passing when there are children around.

As far as the 3 and 4-year olds were concerned, this party's theme was balloons. Early on a few escaped up to a high ceiling area near the window:

Then later on the ducks on the end of the balloon strings became mobile phones:

Sarah had a great time, whether stuffing her face (well, smearing it at least) with chocolate,

or running around the lobby with her partners in crime.

We saw all the Webb-Johnsons too, and got a monster-horsey (evil unicorn perhaps?) demonstration from Lara.

And the best bit for me? Dry ice. I like Dry ice. There was a moment's excitement when Sarah picked up the cup and was about to drink it, but otherwise it just hubbled and bubbled in a most delightful way.

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.