Christmas in Hong Kong!

I landed in Hong Kong 29th November, just in time for Raoul's open day & fete at his new school. It was a promise that I had to make to him & in return he had volunteered me to cook on the Barbie for the school fete. The first few days were just plain relaxing with my family & playing basket ball with Raoul in the evenings. I love Hong Kong, I feel more comfortable there than any other place that I have lived in, strangely it seems more of home to me than Bombay where I grew up or Leicester where I have spent a lot of time over the last 20 years!!

The school Fete was a marathon session all day behind the Barbie with couple of other parents who were Aussie's & Kiwi's naturally. No shrimp on this Barbie mate just burgers & hot dogs. The whole school must have been famished as they kept on coming & coming & coming again all day long.

Early December my family moved house within the same complex but to another tower & a bigger flat, well bigger by Hong Kong standards anyway. It was great to have been there for Renee & Mom during this time, I am sure that Renee plans her moves to coincide with my visits? I was also there when she moved the last time. It was great fun going shopping with my mom again for household stuff & new furniture for the house. Raoul got a new room & I think he love it so result. Initially I had a great routine of getting up early & going to bed early but soon that all went to pot, I started to do more & more research for my trip & stayed up late at night to surf the net. I did manage to plan a rough route through Central America whilst I was there, rough I say as I do not foresee that I will stick to it, more of a guide as to what I want to see.

Best dishes are created by accident I think & one night after a few glasses of wine I decided to experiment in making some walnut fudge. Proud to say that it turned out marvellous but very hard to replicate again as I was a bit pissed when I made it & cannot remember exactly how we made it. Note to self: get pissed before you try to make it again.

Unfortunately Renee was away on a flight for Xmas so it was just Mom, Raoul, Nihal & Nimrit (friend Dimpy's Kids) for Xmas lunch. I enjoyed cooking for the kids & inspite of a tiny oven that we have it turned out fine. The funniest thing was that Nihal poor sod did not like anything that was put in front of him. But I suppose kids are kids & not everything can be to their liking. I'm sure a happy meal from McD's would have been more appreciated by him.

The best part of Hong Kong was the time I got to spend with Raoul. Just the routine stuff that a parent does with their kids or nephew in my case. Boy are kids tiring! The questions and wave of emotions are fascinating & many a time mind boggling. The strangest thing was me trying to teach him Math, not my favourite subject ever. Give me an excel spreadsheet & I am fine but without a keyboard on my fingertips it was all Greek to me. I even tried to learn stuff the night before teaching him & doing his homework with him. Raoul has a great growing personality & will be a great natural born leader for sure.

Renee my sis was gonna be in Sydney for the first of Jan so a plan was hatched to realise one of our childhood dreams!!!