Naty

This is Naty, our domestic helper here in HK who has been with us since July. She cooks and cleans and takes care of Ingrid, but more importantly she allows Lizzie and I the time to hit the town to regain a little sanity without a baby and stroller in tow. Naty is from the Philippines but has been working as a DH (mostly in HK) for nearly 20 years. We're really lucky as she's been great and Ingrid adores her. You hear horror stories about helpers and their employers alike, so we're very pleased to have found such a great situation.

Spaceman

China is riding on high these days. Coming off an extremely successful Olympics, the country now has a new national hero -- Zhai Zhigang, the first Chinese man ever to walk in space. This is obviously huge, huge news here, and for the Chinese it must be welcome to have the tainted-baby milk scandal wiped from the front pages. You can imagine that National pride is at an extreme level right. Have to say it kind of makes me jealous given the grim state of affairs in my home country.

Mmmm Lemon....

Typhoon Hagupit

UPDATE POST TYPHOON: Well, Hagupit was somewhat of a non-event. The typhoon banked a left and headed over Southern China instead of registering the expected hit on HK. It did bring expected heavy rain and extreme wind. And I did indeed get stuck in a long taxi line during the beginning of the storm. It was actually comical to watch the others in line with me. Everyone in their dapper business attire getting pelted with wind and sideways rain. Everyone had umbrellas but none of them were open because the wind would just invert them. So, typhoon season is coming to a close but it has been entertaining.

Another Typhoon has its sights set on HK. The heat in the past couple of days has been oppressive and the pollution levels have been off the charts, both indicators of an approaching storm. It's mid-morning right now and the slight breeze from the south has prompted the HK Observatory to hoist a Signal 3 warning. By late afternoon Hagupit is supposed to be a Signal 8 which will close down the City's office buildings and send everyone home to their bunkers in the sky. That's what's crazy, the government sends everyone home at the same time when a Signal 8 is hoisted so people hit the streets and the taxi queues are endless and everyone sits in line and gets drenched. The wise ones instead make their way to the Captain's Bar at the Mandarin to ride out the storm. By nightfall tonight the typhoon should be in full swing, we'll send photos.

New Look

Lizzie returned from the States this past week as a brunette. Let me tell you, it is far more difficult to pick her out of the average Hong Kong crowd. Today we were in a shopping mall (big surprise) and got separated and I had rough time locating her. It wouldn't have been so tough if Ingrid hadn't dyed her hair dark as well...

The Big #1

Happy Birthday Ingrid!

Taipei 101

On a recent business trip to Taiwan I hada brief chance to play tourist and check out the 'Taipei 101' tower. It's currently the world's tallest building, at least until Dubai's 'Burj Al Dubai' blows its doors off with an incredible 160 habitable floors. It was indeed incredible to be that high up in the air, but Asia has blunted my enjoyment of tall buildings. I find that above 70 floors I tend to experience diminishing returns of entertainment.

Way cooler than the buildings sheer height was that the elevator that whisks you to the observation deck moves at almost 40mph, a world record. The elevator attendant reminds you to clear your ears about midway up/down so your head doesn't explode.

Even cooler than the turbo elevators is the buildings gigantic 'tuned mass damper' which dangles from the 92nd floor. It looks like some sort of evil world-ending explosive from a James Bond movie, but is actually a 650 steel pendulum which counteracts the effects of earthquakes and high winds to stabilize the building.

It's got all the symbolism and feng shui correctness you'd expect from a building in Asia. And yes, it has also been conquered by French Spiderman and friend of Ingrid, Alain Robert. He scaled it in just over 4 hours.

Welcome to Taiwan

Not messing around....

England

The girls and I recently jetted over to jolly ol' England to attend the storybook wedding of my college friend Patrick and his lovely bride Elizabeth. The event was held at spectacular Bovey Castle in Devon, about 150 miles southwest of London, and was a top shelf affair all the way. It was truly special to be a part of such a incredible event, and it was great to spend time around old friends. And after a week of such extreme up/down emotional swings, it was extremely redeeming to bear witness to the nuptials of one of the more quality people I'll ever know, and to see the 150+ other people collected into a room who felt the same.

My viewpoint of life in the country outside of London has always been drawn from the BBC's 6-tape VHS version of Pride & Prejudice where the behavior of the characters was so classically refined in its manner. And as Obama says, you can put lipstick on a pig.......well, let's not get political but just say that you put my fraternity buddies in a very refined environment like an English castle but they are still my fraternity buddies. You would never have caught a sweaty Mr. Darcy spasmodically jumping around the dance floor to his alma mater's fight song like my Stanford cronies and I did to the Dark Blues' cover of "All Right Now." Nor would Jane Austen's novels include a shocking reference to 'eye watering flatulence' as did one of my friend's rehearsal dinner speeches. But there we were, rewriting history.
The tranquility of the setting was not to be believed. Lizzie and I rolled Ingrid thru the castle grounds and along the hedgerows and actually began to rationalize how we could give up the urban struggle of HK and live a life of peace and quiet in the countryside. We wouldn't even have to be proper aristocrats we figured, we could just live humbly in one of the many thatched roofed cottages that dotted the horizon. I'd tend the farm, Lizzie would prepare the chips and mushy peas. We were fully sold on the idea. Then a bumblebee landed on my shoulder and I spazzed out like I'd been shot.....perhaps we not yet ready for such agrarian lifestylings.

Another upshot of the trip is that Ingrid got a rare glimpse of grass, that mythical substance that is such a precious and scarce commodity in Hong Kong. She's just recently getting up and around on her feet so it was nice not to have to be her training wheels for fear she'd bonk her head on the granite of a shopping mall floor or the corner of a coffee table in our cramped HK apartment. She could just roam free and roll around in the grass like all kids should be allowed to do.

We set aside an extra day after the wedding to explore London, taking in Hyde Park, Harrod's department store, the spectacular V&A Museum, stroll along the Thames, play some billiards and take in a couple of the city's better Indian restaurants. Our hotel looked out over Paddington Station (see the jellyroll photo of Ingrid on the sill). Our little garden gnome Ingrid has been quite the traveler. I didn't see a non-North American country until I was in my late 20's, but Ingrid's nearing 10 before her first BDay (Sept 16!). The Heathrow customs officer flipped through the many stamped pages on Ingrid's passport and looked up at me as though I was abusively dragging this poor child through way too much travel. I don't disagree. She'll have put in 30K miles in the past month which is tough on her and even tougher on Lizzie who shares a seat with her.

I'm settled back now into the concrete jungle of Hong Kong where my social circle is limited and nature is an afterthought, but my trip to England is something from which to draw strength.

The Blog Must Go On

Three weeks on following my father's passing, I'm back in Hong Kong. It was greatly healing for me to receive such an intensive dose of family over those weeks and to view the outpouring of support and love at the funeral services from all who were connected to my Dad's life. He was a truly special man and his loss was mourned as equally as his life was celebrated. A big thank you to all of you who were so thoughtful in sending along your prayers and well wishes - they helped greatly.