Kirst Afloat

Homework

James came home with homework for the first time today.  Getting off the bus, he was thrilled and couldn't wait to show Claire and me.  It was a list of six words which he needed to practice reading.  We went straight from school to soccer.  Once we arrived home, James again reminded me about his homework.  Claire practiced the words with him.  After dinner, he reminded me.  We practice the words twice.  While I was listening to Claire practice piano, James went absolutely ballistic about his homework---he crumpled it up while repeating, "I can't take it anymore".  After his bath, I checked out his word list.  James tried to fix his list, but it was beyond repair: damp, ripped in half and crumpled.  He then begged me to make a new one and I told him that I would.  I also told him that Ms. Jennifer would be upset with the way he had treated his homework. 

Wow, James managed to get from emotion a to emotion z regarding homework in a very small window of time---much quicker than his sister.  And he's beginning to read.  Amazing!

Smoked & Blanked

Wednesday was the opening night of the Hong Kong Ice Hockey League.  My team, DragonBack, unfortunately had the 11 pm game which makes for a very late night.  All I can really say about our first game is that there is a lot of room for improvement.  We lost 0-7. 

I was initially afraid to read the summary of our game after reading this (from the email about Division 2 results):

PPG came out strong with two fast sleeper goals that Zulia would love to have back.  First goal was on a bad angle by Thomas Ng and the 2nd goal by Jim Lui which also caught Zulia sleeping.  In the 2nd period Barnes scored on a slapper from the point and PPG went up 3-0 until Bernard Fung went coast to coast beating Alexi who is still looking for his jock strap.  Throughout the game, Thomas Ng out skated the speedy Terence Chim who is no longer the fastest skater in the league.

Fortunately the blurb about our game doesn't make any references to my sleeping habits or jockstrap.

Coors Light 7 – DragonBack 0
Coors Light – Robert Chiu 3G, Doug Foster 3G, Charles Yorke 1G
DragonBack – No Goals
Saves – Rob Porter 10 Saves & Kirsten Rendell 23 Saves
The 3 Stars of the Game – 1)Doug Foster 2)Rob Chiu 3) Charles Yorke
 
One sided affair in the last game of the night.  The trio of Foster, Chiu and Yorke provided the scoring punch on every goal.  If you would take away this line and it would have been a different game.  Kirsten Rendell making her Div 2 debut played very well but was outmatched by the better Coors Light team.

We have no hockey next week due to National Day (October 1st).  I'm hoping for a much better result on the 8th. 

Typhoon Hagupit

The kids & I left the boat at 5 pm yesterday.  The boat was rocking, the lines were creaking, and a cleat pulled out of the dock.  I took a few photos from the car park---the wind was quite strong and the surf was rough.  The Typhoon Signal at this point was still a T3.  An hour later, it was upgraded to a T8.

   

We picked up Tom at his office and spent the night at the Marriott.  On the 26th floor, the glass in floor to ceiling windows was audibly shifting.  All was well although Claire was again sick this morning.  This time her illness is definitely what James had last week: severe headache which causes vomiting and a rash.  She improved rapidly once we arrived back home today. 

On the ride back to Clearwater Bay, we noticed a lot of greenery down as well as small tree branches.  It was a bit of a shock once we arrived in the marina.  The wind wasn't too bad during the storm, but at 2 am there was a storm surge.  This, coupled with high tide, caused flooding.  The car park, itself, was covered in debris.  I had to drive very carefully to avoid the multitude of rocks, some of which were quite large.  It's hard to imagine the sea bringing all of those rocks up onto the breakwater (upon which the car park is located).  The road into the marina was pretty bad itself, but the staff had already cleaned it by the time we arrived.  There was at least two large "dumpster-style" trash bins full of debris.  I'm not sure if more was thrown out earlier. 

 

There was a line of debris in the marina itself, about 3 feet above the usual high tide mark.  The boats were also quite dirty, strewn with leaves and brush. 

Lastly, I'll include a couple of similar shots of the water today as a comparison.  These were taken at about 11 this morning with my telephoto lens.  (I used my regular lens yesterday.)  

Abandoning Ship!

The wind is intensifying and the #8 signal is supposed to be hoisted at around 6pm.  Tom & I made the executive decision to head to town just in case it gets nasty here.  The boat is rocking quite a bit and the lines are creaking.  I need to pack and then swing by Tom's office on our way to the Marriott by Pacific Place.  No idea whether the kids will have school tomorrow so I need to pack uniforms, backpacks, regular clothes, James' snack for the entire class, etc.

At least I'm not cooking dinner tonight!

Don't Rock the Boat

It's fairly rough now...the boat is rocking back and forth.  Nothing perilous but a bit uncomfortable.  I'm behind in my reading/coursework for my course at University of Wisconsin:  Children's Literature in the Reading Program.  Problem is that I can't concentrate with the kids around and boat rocking. 

Just baked two batches of blueberry muffins for James' class tomorrow.  He is scheduled for "special snack" duty.  In the morning (provided that the typhoon signal is down), I need to drop Claire at school and then take James to speech.  After that we rush to his school, then I'm off to the gym.  By that point, there's probably no point in going back to the boat because I'll have to leave by 2:15 at the latest to go to Claire's school.  And our first hockey game is at 11pm tomorrow night. 

Don't know when I'm going to get everything done...hmmmm...maybe little sleep again tonight.  And I'm already tired.

I think Claire is going to have Faust this afternoon---the 8 isn't supposed to be hoisted until sometime between 4 and 8 pm.  Her class is from 4-5:30 in Repulse Bay.

Typhoon Day

Stand-by signal #1 is still posted but the wind is now whistling through the marina.  Claire is home from school today because she still has a slight fever.  She looks much better than yesterday and is disappointed that she is missing school.

James was very unhappy that he had to go to school today.  I checked the Hong Kong Observatory website before driving into the city this morning.  Still a #1.  However as I was talking to my mom on the approach to the Tseung Kwan O Tunnel, I could hear that there was a new message on my phone.  I disconnected with her and rang 988 (voicemail).  There was a message that school for James had been cancelled because it was now a Strong Wind Signal #3.  A joyous James was thrilled in the backseat of the StepWgn.  The only problem now was that I was still approaching the tunnel and there is no where to turn around.  After thinking about that for a minute (and while talking to my mom again), I realized that I could drive past the Lam Tin MTR Station (and not towards the Eastern Harbour Tunnel) and enter the roundabout to circle back to Clearwater Bay.  Which I did. 

And I've now discovered that it's actually not a #3 yet:

As the Hong Kong Observatory expects that the tropical cyclone warning signal number 3 is likely to be issued within the next few hours, classes of kindergartens, schools for children with physical disability and schools for children with intellectual disability are suspended today. Schools should keep their premises open and implement contingency measures to look after arriving students.

But better that James is home---I envisioned receiving a phone call this morning and having to drive to Ap Lei Chau to pick him up from his school in South Horizons .

Snake Bay Last Saturday

We took the new (to us) inflatable out on Saturday and went over to Snake.  Both kids were wary of the journey, but it went well.  Claire and I rode up in the bow---I was on the seat in front of the steering station and Claire sat on the cooler in front of me.  She held onto my legs for dear life (or so it seemed).  The boys' team drove.

Snake was great although quite crowded with junks.  It is amazing that more people don't get run over boating here---there doesn't seem to be a lot of common sense with some of the maneuvers going on.  We had a great time.  Claire & James built an entire sand city.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos until the very end (after the tide had washed most of the city away) as Claire's camera was left on-board.

We had planned to go out again on Sunday after church but James was sick with a fever and headache.

 

The Right Decision

I picked James up at his school today.  When I did, his teacher mentioned that he's started phonetic reading which is exciting.  I then asked her if he was okay this morning.  She looked puzzled and I explained about the bus incident earlier.  Miss Jennifer said, "James was fine this morning...not upset at all."

Hmmmm....all that parental guilt for nada.  Good news, though...

How Parenting James is like the US Legal System

With James, setting a precedent can be a very bad thing.  Last spring, James was sick and I (stupidly) mentioned to his teacher that he had a fever.  She then said James couldn't come back to school for 48 hours after the fever broke.   During his exile, James accompanied me to Pacific Coffee in the mornings and then to Curves, my gym in Central.  We then ran errands and eventually ended back on the boat.  Since that time, James has not wanted to go to school in the morning.  He's happy once he's there but it's the getting there part that is a drag.

Today, Claire was sick with what James had yesterday.  Basically a headache and a fever.  Her throat is sore as well (which isn't unusual---her throat is typically sore anyway because she's a mouth breather).  I drove James to Claire's campus and was happily surprised when he wasn't complained about going to school.  However, once we passed the Excelsior Hotel, he started to whinge. 

When we arrive at school early, James and I always play NDS against each other.  Today it was Mario Bros. mini games.  Things were going well...the shuttle bus arrived and James switched off his DS Lite.  He got onto the bus fine, sat down with Louis.  I was speaking to another parent when all hell broke lose.  James was hysterical...Louis had run out of his seat to sit with Jaydan.  The bus mother then moved James towards the back of the bus so he could sit with another boy.  No go.  I went on the bus, strapped James in---he was crying the entire time.  "I want to go home, I want to go home."  Then I walked off the bus and stood by his window waving.  His face was squished up, he was sobbing, he was still telling me he want to go home.  I felt awful.  But remembering the US Legal System, I smiled and waved as the bus drove off.

On the way home, I still felt terrible and cried a bit.  I imagined James getting to school and still sobbing his little heart out.  However, I know this probably wasn't going to happen.  I can remember teaching 4-year-olds at the Brown Summer Sports Camp.  Same sort of scenario except I was the counselor.  Once the parents left, the child always calmed down.  It still doesn't feel good, though, when you're the parent. 

The guilt hung over me for awhile this morning but after the first cappuccino, the caffeine hit my bloodstream and I began to feel much better.  The school never rang, so James must be doing okay.  But I know if I had taken James back home with me this morning, he would never forget the precedent.  And my life would majorly suck EVERY school morning.

James' Birthday at our House in GA