jan, 27th - 4/52....

"a portrait of the girls, once a week, every week, in 2013"

day 1076 / 175:

Claya: generally she veers from either smiling to this "really?" expression....

Limi: waking up from an afternoon sleep....daytime sleeps are now few and far between

p.s. read more about the 52 Project here. 

jan, 26th - the china club....

day 1075 / 174:

if The China Club was a person, it would be an artist from 1930s Shanghai who has been heavily influenced by trips to England, France and Italy (and has a wealthy patron). it's a person I could happily spend hours with.....

the club is members only and located in the old Bank of China building in Central, Hong Kong. i had a delicious lunch there when I was visiting before Christmas. the homegrown art that is almost as prolific as wallpaper on the walls, is worth a visit alone. the club has a maze of rooms: a main dining room, the Long March Bar, private rooms where cards and mah-jong are played, a library and a roof terrace with stunning views over the city.

 if i was a local and lucky enough to be a member of The China Club, it's where I would escape to for a dose of Chinese aesthetic, mouthfuls of incredible dim sum and comforting wrap-you-in-a-blanket service. it's a lovely, lovely place.

jan, 23rd - rock pools....

day 1072 / 171:

as a child, growing up near the coast, i remember being utterly fascinated by rock pools. i would spend hours trying to catch teeny tiny fish, putting them into a glass jar and then 'releasing' them back into the wild again.

while we were away, one of Limi's favourite things to go down the beach to some rock pools. she charmed the local fishmen who launch their boats from there and they even gave her a gift of a squid (or 'squod' as she called it). if fact she was more excited by her 'squod', that she proudly carried back, than by the calamari it was turned into for lunch. on another day there was a local kids party happening on a beach and we managed to join in for a bit......

on all our visits to the rock pools, we didn't manage to capture any fish (which may have been due to using the world's smallest fishing net) but we did get to spend time completely absorbed in staring at pools of water looking for any darting movement and reliving our own childhoods all over again. 

safe to say, the magic of rock pools hasn't faded over time.....

jan, 21st - 3/52....

day 1070 / 169:

Claya: let me show you how i roll

Limi: her giggle always makes me giggle

two more for the 52 Project......(thank you Jodi for including me in 3/52.....super chuffed.)

p.s. these were take while we were away....so next week, it's back to wrapped up London images...(unless we crank up the heating inside to tropical temperatures...which is very tempting)

jan, 20th - flurries in the park....

 day 1069 / 168:

oh what a difference a week (and two days) makes.......with flurries of snow all over London, we headed to the park over the weekend to build snowmen and have snowball fights. i can't say that our childhoods in the Southern Hemisphere taught us much about building snowmen....our attempts were feeble. so instead, we did a tour of the park, meeting and greeting other people's masterpieces. we'll need to get practising so that we can build the 'family of snow-people' that Limi requested.

and afterwards, we retreated for hot chocolate and marshmallows.....

we are still in awe of snow and happy that we now have a good excuse to go and act like children in the park......that's what a childhood of snow-deprivation will do to you.

i hope that your weekend was just as magical. x

p.s. Limi was fascinated by the bird prints in the snow and later, at bedtime, told A. that because it was snowing outside maybe we could go out and build them a house so that they didn't have to be in the snow.....and, we could also give them big shoes.

jan, 18th - another visit to the market....

day 1068 / 167:

while there are flurries of snow outside...actual flurries, i am still reliving the last couple of weeks of our holiday in Asia....there are still so many photos that i'd like to share with you of our time out there....i'll try and mix them up with some usual posting on life back here.....and hopefully it won't be odd to jump between sand and snow......swimming and sleighing......

whenever we spend time at my sister's home in Thailand {see day 794}, we visit the local fresh food market at least once {see our last visit on day 766}. i love that it's not at all touristy but a real market for people who live and work in the area.....it also sells the hottest curry pastes i have ever tasted....they are in a league of their own.

 

there are cafes dotted around the edge of the market that service the market workers. i'd be very keen to try one as they must have some of the freshest ingredients around.....

A and i both love to cook asian food so it's always exciting to go and touch and smell some homegrown ingredients.