6 June 2011: Dragonboat festival

Last week on Monday we had another Public Holiday in Hong Kong, this time to 'celebrate' the Dragon boat festival. Stuart Fraser, Ageas HK's CEO, had invited a few people from Senior Management and their families to come for a junk boat trip. In the morning we gathered at HK Central where the boat picked all of us up. First we went (past our home in Bel-Air) to Aberdeen to see a few of the 1st races. For lunch we had a reservation in one of the Seafood restaurants of Lamma Island. In the afternoon we went to Stanley to watch a few of the main races and a few even went for a swim in the sea. The weather was excellent and everyone, especially the children, have really enjoyed themselves!

7 August 2011: Holiday Sanya - China

Early August we have been to Sanya for a week to have a holiday. Sanya is slightly over a one hour flight from Hong Kong on the island of Hainan in China. There is not a lot of exiting things to to on the island itself, hence most of the people go there to one of the many resorts to relax. We booked a room in a brand new resort that has just been openened in April 2011. Everything was new and especially Emily and Sophie had a great time: the hotel had an enormous spool with a separate area with sand to play. The resort also had an indoor playroom for kids with all sorts of toys, cuddly bears and games to do. See the pictures!

12 September 2011: Mid-autumn festival

Last week the Mid-Autumn festival ws celebrated in Hong Kong. Besides an official Public Holiday traditionally a lot of people make and hang lanterns. Also in Hong Kong a big tradition is mooncakes and at the office a lot of vendors send baskets with fruit and other items to eat. This year we went to Victoria Park to look at the special decorations. See the pictures.

25 Oktober 2011: Holiday Malaysia

Last week there was a Fall break at school and since it was already almost a year ago (....) we decided to go to Kuala Lumpur again for a short trip. Also this time we had a very good time again. During the week we spent in KL we visited friends, had lunch with former collegues and of course enjoyed all the food !!

Zie de foto's!

4 December 2011: Sinterklaas

This year we have celebrated the Dutch "Sinterklaas" feast for the first time in Hong Kong. At the Dutch School where Emily goes every Wednesday afternoon there was a 'Sinterklaas' with two of his black helpers. They obviously brought a lot of candies and 'pepernoten' for all the kids. During the weekend we also celebrated the event with a few Dutch families who live in Bel-Air. There were three big bags with presents for the children !

6 December 2011: Surgery

Last week Henk had to undergo some surgery to his neck. Since the holiday to Sanya he had some problems with his back and left hand. After making a MRI scan it appeared that one of the discs in his neck was pressing against the spinal cord (probably happened after going down the slide with Emily in the pool). The only way to fix this was to remove the disc and put in an artificial titanium one.
The operation itself on 6 December went fine, it took a bit longer than expected (about 4 hours) and after one more full day in the hospital Henk was allowed to go home again on Thursday morning. He'll have to stay home for 1-2 weeks.