Class pet

 I had a little turtle

And he lived in a box.

He swam in the water

And he climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a minnow.

He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a mosquito.

And he snapped at me.

He caught the minnow.

He caught the flea.

He caught the mosquito.

But he didn't catch me!

This weekend Jemilla was so excited as it was her turn to bring home the Grade Two class pets: turtles. Thank goodness she also brought a laminated sheet of instructions for feeding and caring for them, as my knowledge of turtles is pretty much limited to the children's rhyme above!

Jemilla chose to put the turtle tanks in our lounge room by a window. They have been objects of fascination all weekend long for the three children.

This is the turtle food, tiny pellets made from fish, shrimp,soybeans, yeast, vitamins and minerals.

Feeding time, turtles!

This turtle sometimes tried to snap at Jemilla's finger.

And sometimes it did funny stretching exercises on the rock. Can you see the red on the side of its head?

From Jemilla's journal: "On Thursday I got the turtles. They are very nice. Sometimes I pick them up and they try to run away. Daddy held one once. He was so scared! He was glad when it was over. I like them so, so, so, so much! I want to keep them forever. Sometimes they tickle me. One just puts its head, arms and legs inside its shell. I love turtles!"

World's highest church (not to be confused with the Tower of Babel)

Last Sunday we travelled on the world's longest outdoor escalator system. Today we visited another record-breaking place: the world's highest church. A colleague from my school invited us to Hong Kong City Church which meets on the 75th floor of Central Plaza in Wan Chai, the third tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong.

 

The service was very energetic and vibrant, with an enthusiastic music team and a likeable Aussie pastor who urged us to not only protect ourselves by wearing the full armour of God but to also warn others if we see Satan getting a foothold in their lives.

It's another great church that is unfortunately a bit too far for us to travel  via public transport every week (1.5 hours each way).

And talk about Nesting in Skyscrapers, look at these photos Craig took of our view from the church "pews".

The photos of Hong Kong Island may not mean much to you, but in this last one I've circled Craig's workplace, Small World Christian Kindergarten, to give you an idea of its location.

"Catch it, Ricky!" (yes, it's another cricket post)

Today was father/son time, so Craig and Keegan chose to travel in style, sitting in the first class carriage of East line train en route to Tsing Yi.

You can see how crowded the MTR platform gets on a Saturday afternoon! Thankfully the trains come every one to three minutes.

Keegan and Craig went for a walkabout looking for a particular indoor sports centre where they had been told there would be a cricket fun day. This was not the right venue.

And neither was this.

At last they found the right place!

Craig tells me that they were the first people to arrive and the last to leave from the four hour session which was put on to promote cricket interest in Hong Kong. (You need to work a bit harder to get my interest in the sport, folks!)

This coach gave Keegan a few individual sessions during the day. Craig later learned that he coached the last Hong Kong Under19s squad who toured New Zealand earlier this year.

It's interesting to see some of the budding female cricket players playing in full dress.

These boys were lining up taking turns to run out in the middle and catch high balls. Without prompting they all started yelling out to Keegan, "Catch it, Ricky, catch it!" That made Keegan smile from ear to ear.

Keegan does some batting practice.

Everyone takes a turn to bowl.

Time to get some wicket-keeping tips.

Keegan poses here with some of today's cricket coaches. One of the Pakistani coaches asked what his favourite fielding position was. Keegan responded, "second slip" which surprised Craig as up until now he has always answered "wicket keeping". The coach then asked, "Is that because Ricky Ponting fields at second slip?" to which Keegan nodded. He has even asked us to call him "Ricky", but I think that's taking hero worship a bit too far, don't you?

MTR war paint

Despite the extreme modesty of people in Hong Kong with regards to general behaviour and dress, they seem to have no shame about grooming themselves while on public transport. I have seen numerous individuals on the bus or train plucking facial hairs, squeezing pimples, clipping their nails, and picking their nose. (It must be said that even the Harveys contributed to this attitude during our potty-training period.) Craig snapped these photos of women applying their make-up while on the MTR.

The Wiggles in Hong Kong

In case you couldn't tell from yesterday's post, the Wiggles are in Hong Kong! On Tuesday night I took Tirzah to their concert.

The venue was not ideal for children. We could hardly see over other people's heads, but Tirzah still had a wonderful time. She sang and clapped and danced to the music. The Wiggles proved again why they are so popular as children's entertainers. Tirzah was absolutely enthralled. And we received many strange looks from passengers on the MTR coming home that night, let me tell you!

Wordless Wednesday (twelve)

Shoelaces, cavities, and self-control

This morning Craig gave the chapel talk at Jemilla's school, NIS. The topic was "self-control" so he asked Jemilla to act out a song.

Here are the lyrics to "Self-Control" from Music Machine.

Once I had a knot in my shoe
And it would not come loose
I tried and tried and pried and pried
But it would not come loose
I got so mad I kicked the door
and stubbed my little toe, ohhh
If only I had learned a little bit of self-control

Self-control is just controlling myself
It's listening to my heart
And doing what is smart
Self-control is the very best way to go
So I think that I'll control myself

I never like to brush my teeth
I wish that I could stop
I'd have more time for candy bars
And drinking soda pop

But soon my teeth would hurt so bad
From all the cavities, oh me!
I'd better learn some self-control
So this won't happen to me

Self-control is just controlling myself
It's listening to my heart
And doing what is smart
Self-control is the very best way to go
So I think that I'll control myself

Both Craig and I performed in the musical "Music Machine" when we were very young, so it's nice that our children still enjoy the same fun tunes and Christian-values-though-drama as we did.

Craig used the Bible story of Jesus being thrice tempted by Satan to demonstrate to the studenets how Jesus used self-control. Jemilla was so proud to have her Daddy as the guest speaker.