Overshadowed by Leony

Check out this super-nice photo of Evan with his dog - taken by Leony - putting me in the shade, unfortunately. Might find myself making beds and having to turn over the photographic role to her.

Sad,sad Dad?

I know that this is shameless, but I couldn't help myself posting two more car pics - I'm just so very super happy about the thing - it is THE COOLEST CAR ever built; of this I'm sure. So here goes, with the added bonus of a smily Evan and Ange, and Aiden's bum - in the Clearwater Bay parking lot after a beach burn. (Probably not the right term - the sea was cold - 18 degrees. Evan refused to get out of the water. Evan turned blue and shivvered. Evan doesn't mind. As you can see the car has been washed. In fact I've worked out that I've washed this car more times than I've washed all the other cars I've ever owned put together, and I've only had it for two weeks. Sad stuff indeed. In three and a bit years' time I think you might be begging me for the keys; and no problem sunshine when you're licensed to go (as long as the right foot stays light and the head clear and focussed).

Easter

Happy Easter, and I hope the cycling was great. I read your comments on the blog (posted in Jan - man I am a sleepy head) and went to check out your blog - super nice to see (and I think I cracked your car quiz by the way, you'll have to let me know); keep posting if you get a chance, and I'm going to RSS your blog so that I get a notification when you do.

Easter has been great so far; being able to spend time with the little guys is magic, and they got into the Easter egg hunt and chockie guzzling with gusto - action started at daybreak (Evan feels it's important to take a ball with you wherever you go - just in case) and the haul was obscene.

Further down the hill in the Cox's garden the hunt became much more competitive - there are currently six kids staying there - and of course while Ev was not lacking enthusiasm, he was a bit slower out of the blocks. What he was lacking in speed however, he more than made up for in committment; leopard crawling in mud under bushes is not in any way beneath him.

The only problem for Evan is that he doesn't like chocolate, so eating the eggs was not his big thing; he did discover that he liked squeezing them, and poking fingers throught the tinfoil and chocolate to leave nice little round holes in the bunny rabbit's tummy. Not good. Haul removed before senselessly destroyed. Aiden was born on a Good Friday - so in a sense he has a real connection to Easter - and he is of course willing to eat his body-weight in Easter eggs.

More of the "mini"

Dad's got a new car - or is it?

I'm a super-smiling guy today, because I found the car I was looking for at a price that I could pay, and so move aside the golden frog/jelly bean (now needing new tyres, battery, power steering unit, wipers, shocks and another aircon service, no thanks) and welcome to something much smaller - the pea. I don't think even a car aficionado like yourself will have seen one - though please put me right here if I'm wrong - but my new, superfantastic wheels are in the form of this, oficially called a Daihatsu Mira Gino Turbo Minilite Special (seems like the Japanese go for short punchy names) - all 659cc three screaming cylinders of it - that's right - a 0.6l car. However, before snorting into your chili cheese macmuffin - bear in mind the following: it's rated as one of the greenest cars you can get (114g/km of C02, if you're into those sorts of statistics) and sports a three cylinder multivalve, turbocharged, with a fat intercooler, red lines at 8,500rpm (proof here if you click the pic), and runs through to a mind boggling 10,000 rpm (it doesn't matter how small it is, something going round that fast has got to move you) ABS, dual airbags, deafness inducing sound system, and as you can see, mint condition – frankly my dream car. Here's the Jeremy Clarkson (younger with a very bushy hairstyle indeed) take on it as a driving experience –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptiMZTm4F34


though in his case the older, non retro model of my now exquisitely designed and finished little beauty. (Mine's predecessor is the red one in the clip, and frankly it's lacking aesthetically). The clip's quite good if you want a brief explanation of what exactly Kei cars are, and why I love them so much. Why you can't (or should I say couldn't when I was there) get them in SA is beyond me - it really is the way to go with oil at U$108 a barrel and climbing. You'll notice that it's good for a trip to the shops too.

Got to love Aiden’s expression. He might only be sub four – but he knows how to keep a bead on the monster, and my oath is he turning into one, your youngest brother is; Ange says it's the terrible twos come early - if she's wrong it's certainly going to be entertaining when they do arrive.

The problem with kissing dogs

You think you'll kiss a dog - but its a bad idea - tickles the hell out of your nose - so it's much better to use a dog to scratch your head.

Catching up on Evan

Taking portraits of Evan is much trickier than Aiden. The one above, which I really like, took a lot more work than it looks. He's super-active, super-naughty, and really not interested in posing for cameras. (This is why you'll notive some skid marks on his nose in all of these - courtesy of a crash landing at soccer-tots.) As a result, it's easy to end up with a dearth of photos of Ev and a bundle of his pro-posing brother. This weekend I set out to set that right. The sequence below shows a typical response: Evan in his natural, hyper-mobile (and increasingly vocal state), then Evan realising that there's an opportunity for naughtiness in what you're asking him to do - and then Rich wising up; hand over Murphy - his much loved dog, and then get the sort of photo you're looking for - though of course in this instance he's not looking at the camera.

This morning we went to the Sai Kung football pitch because I had to do some photos with Jens for the Stingrays Rugby team. The pitch is a grass one - very rare for Hong Kong - and has a tartan athletics track around it, and trees and grass around that. Your brothers are keen on all this, especially because there are balls involved. Ev's quite independent, "broms" around, kicks his ball, takes a break by sitting down in the shade and cheking out the action. Increasingly they have a relationship that isn't only about fighting, which is nice, and I think Aiden has started to enjoy having him around.