Summer holidays!

Having been slightly worried about a long hot, humid summer, abandoned by many of our friends who left for cooler climes, we are really enjoying the Summer in Hong Kong. Having said that I realise I am not the one cycling 4 miles to work in the heat and humidity, but then I was the one who got up 3 times last night to see to Naomi Rose and her new molars. Division of labour is a great thing.

We finished homeschool term on the 18th of July and invited Giles to an open morning the following day. We're enjoying the break from schooling but are looking forward to the new homeschool year starting on September 1st. Next term should be a lot easier with fewer demands on my time as we have found a 'helper', Angelyn, who will be responsible for the housework, leaving me free to look after the children. She's in the Philippines at the moment, waiting for her visa, and should be able to start in early September.

At the end of July Giles took a well-earned week's holiday from work, and despite being ill for most of it did enjoy a good break with the family. We had a couple of days in Macau which was fascinating, more Portuguese than Chinese so a real change from HK, and we really enjoyed the Holiday Inn breakfasts! While we were there we spent a messy morning on a beach with black sand (see photo!).
We then had a couple of hot days on Cheung Chau, a small, hilly, green island with lovely yellow beaches!


Back in HK, Elizabeth and Jemima have just had an action-packed week of 'Sports camp' at a nearby school which involved trying lots of different sports including kung fu, basketball, badminton, football, swimming, tennis, games and gymnastics.

After watching the opening ceremony on Friday evening, we celebrated Naomi's 1st birthday this weekend with a party with an Olympic theme. She is as lovely as ever now she is one, she says DaDa, stands up in the bath (and the pushchair, highchair and anywhere else she shouldn't), pushes chairs around the room, sits under the table eating crumbs and smiles a lot.