so back from the philippines, birthday parties over, and errm, yes, my parents and kipper and nearly naked grant are here.

this is a big deal. my home is busy but happy!

yesterday was a full day, we three dames went to church, then joined the boys and kids at a rugby tournament. from there we headed to wan chai gap where we were meant to join lesley, jo, andrea and families for a hike.

my dad, never one to let a nice day go to waste, got antsy, and at 2.15 declared he was starting. i decided that it was best he not go alone and accompanied him. dad is a great walker and we went along, and had a great walk. as did the others.

dad even had the time to purchase a new shirt. much to his delight the shirt was ON SALE. much to mum's delight, the shirt was quite attractive!

we went to mannings to get some deoderant. dad is so cute. "i'm looking for mennon speedstick or old spice deodorant." he informed me.

"well, you wont find it here…this is asia!" i responded to my perplexed pa.

he soon learned for himself that his favourite staples were not available. and so we took it upon ourselves to smell out the options.

we decided the best one we could find was called PLAYBOY. graciously, dad let me choose which one he should buy, playboy VEGAS, MALIBU or MIAMI. we chose vegas.

then it was to the boat club, where sela was asleep in mo's arms. her high fever, which had been plaguing her all weekend was back. fortunately i had packed ibuprofin in my bag and i gave her 10 mls. she slept for 45 minutes and then was up and much cooler, and racing around.

the hikers gathered around, drinking and enjoying the great weather. the kids were all well behaved and it was a really nice day. we ordered dinner and quite frankly, were loathe to leave!

but eventually we did. because we had hiked to the boat club we needed to get taxi's home. jasper was on taxi alert and dashed forward when he saw one, little wrist flapping. high praise for the driver, he took jasper seriously and pulled right over for him! high praise for jasper, he got his taxi! yay!

the rest of us piled in a second taxi and all was well.

that night sela had a bad dream, apparently she dreamt that everyone was going out, and jasper told her that they were leaving. a few minutes later, she woke up from this dream and decided the whole thing had happened. she burst into tears and started wandering the hallways which (surprise) were empty and dark. it was true! we had left her! OR were the hallways empty because it was 4.45! oh right, that part!

she was burning up and charles gave her some more ibuprofin. i took that opportunity to email her teachers and my work to say " sela/I won't be in today."

it's great having kipper, nearly, daddy and mo here. it's a good visit. i am a happy hong kong girl right now…but i won't be here for long…..