Reproduced Mu Tian Yu Great Wall photo

Josh and Mia on The Great Wall

Impossible to comprehend the scale of this thing until you walk on it (Josh and Mia the only two people visible on it grinding their way up in the pic above give some idea of the dimensions) - gruelling stuff - distances and gradients are massively deceptive - dispite the temperature, a chilly -4 degrees ambient with a wicked wind driving the experienced way down - we ended up wanting to strip down to shirt-sleeves - which Mia did for a while (brrrr) - and on this section we were reduced to using all fours. 

Apparently the whole project was started by the Chinese in the 7th Century BC, with different dynasties keeping the project rolling through the centuries (an amazing comittment).  Josh read that the wall as a whole is over 6000kms long (Hong Kong to South Africa is 10000kms - so quite a feat). 

We had walked from beyond the point visible in the top right of this pic).

The pic below is taken from the top of the furthest tower we were willing to climb to (a "new" one, built in 1400) and there was an old Chinese battleaxe selling Snickers bars, bottles of water, Coke, (as well as Chinese Red Bull and beer for the clinically insane) at exorbitant prices (three chocolate bars, a coke, and two bottles of water = RMB135 (R150) - which we were more than happy to pay, particularly since lugging them up there seemed to make the price fair) - but everything turned out to be frozen solid.  Frozen Snickers taste great however.

On the way back to the cable way that mercifully takes you up to the wall the sun was behind us so the lovely muted winter colours were easier to capture.  Nice pic of Josh and Mia below - close to the last tower before the cable-way (and I think pretty exhausted).

The final pic below is of the landscape around - super rugged and forbidding.  People who wanted to pick fights with the Chinese would have had to cross these mountains first, before arriving at the fortifications themselves.  Apparently with some of the Chinese emperors you did this very much at your peril, because some of them were fond of sending their captured enemies off to the wall to work until they died; then their bodies were dumped into the wall itself and built over - so while you are cussing away as you slave along it, you can be mindful of the souls of the departed who built it smiling up at you enjoying the last laugh. In the top right is an old piece of the wall, that at some point was abandoned and a new section was built around. 

Camping at Mils beach

It's been an age - but all work and no play...  Yesterday was a public holiday in Hong Kong, and after lunch we packed up (an unbelievable amount of stuff) and went camping on mils beach for the night with Tracy and Simon and the Overtons and the Manns - it was very cool - and I think the boys had a great time.  Last time we went we got absolutely grazed by mozzies - so this time awnings and mozzie nets instead of tents - which worked really well.  The boys were up at 6am and into castle mode on a tide swept beach - we managed to set up in a tiny corner that remained dry following an unusually high tide - a relief that.  Hope you are having a good time - looking forward to seeing you in October - hoping that you're still on for Hong Kong in Dec - if so I wanted to chat dates with you and will wizz you a text tomorrow.

Ev gets down to business in the late afternoon sun

Getting things organised at dusk - the boys get ring side seats for Simon's fire - very exciting stuff for them.

6-odd am - beautiful morning - in their pj's the boys are back at it, Ange chats to Courtney, Allie and Jordan

Close shave with the tide - the only part of the beach that was not underwater in the night was where we'd set up.  High tide was at midnight - not a nice thing to be dealing with at that point.

Allie and Jordan contemplate the little stream and lagoon at the back of the beach - I liked it for its lovely green colour.

August portraits - Evan at four; Aiden at six

Aiden in the woods

Beautiful Thailand

We went to Thailand for a 10 day holiday - it was heavenly - a place of considerable beauty.  This is taken in the late afternoon on a little  beach near Surin where we were staying - don't be fooled by the (beautiful) overcast sky - 30 degrees and the water about 28.

Sondowners on the top part of another beach - I was very lazy with the camera on this trip - but got it out for "the golden hour" when the light is just that - golden.

We went for dinner to a beach hut on Layan beach - lovely little places - the beachside equivalent of a Hong Kong daipaidong, this one run by a Rasta and pumping out some irie tunes - but the surf was pounding - Durban north coast style - very steep beach with big tippers dropping right onto the sand.  We were there with the Overtons - whose kids are mid teens - they were swimming - but it was just way out of the league of Aiden and Ev - but none the less they put on a nice little sulk.  It made me laugh (because they would have been completely destroyed by the surf) and because I got to photograph Aiden's attempt to keep it going:

It starts off here - the sulk - but with such a lovely little curl of blonde hair, hard to take seriously...

Already the resolve is starting to fade, and this just a few seconds later...

Now focussing on not breaking into a full on grin - forgotten the reason for the grumps ....

Fail.  All dental chaos and joy -  back to being in good cheer.

Evan doesnt really let external factors dictate - so he was happy to give me a big sandy cheesy anyway.

Dai Long Wan Sunday

The snorting, clear, fabulous monster weather continues - Southerly winds - blowing Guandong's factory smog somewhere else and leaving us roasting and smiling under cornflower skies.  It's 10.15am - thirty degrees - and we zoom out of Clearwater Bay marina heading for Dai Long Wan - a piece of Hong Kong paradise.

This is Jan-Eric - he's from Hamburg - and lives in Sheung Sze Wan - he was at our house for dinner last night, Iris and their boys (Fynn is Aiden's big mate) are in Germany at the moment,  and invited us out - bliss - a lovely treat.

I have to pin Ev in a grip and zap with the other hand to get him into a boat pic - he's smiling for the first time today - woke up grumpy, got some trashy behavior going - and narrowly avoided being sentenced to a morning at home.  Smiling now though - thinking of that big hole he's going to dig on the beach - and loving being out on the water at speed.

It's a day of staggering beauty - water is not-yet-summer-sickly-warm, cool enough, perfect.  Tide's heading out.  Jan has to move the anchor - Ange contemplates a swim.

 Ev explains where the hole needs to appear

Ange emerges, Blue Lagoon.

Across the beach there's a Daipaidong - early afternoon munch for hungry lads - Ange translates the options into will and won't eat (Ev, what would you like for lunch?  Hotdogs.  Mmm - not the right place - OK, I'll surprise you) - Ev keeps an eye - Aiden makes sure we've not forgotten that he's really a ninja.

Chopsticks blur in anticipation - but the batteries are already showing fade - sun and swimming drained.

Home by 3pm - the day stunning but now dangerously hot - naked bums rehydrate on iced apple juice and aircon - outside the sea swelters and the jungle zings with cicadas.

Boat season - summertime

The Dark City

I took this in 2004, was thinking about it after posting the pic of Ev's kindergarten building below which is in the same area - and went back to take a look - I really like it - it's as I imagine soviet era architecture to be - superstark; razor-blue sky - incredibly intimidating I think.

Faceplant and colours

Ev started off the weekend with a late Friday afternoon face-plant on the beach.  I wasn't there, but she tells me that he was pushing his yellow truck at high speed, crashed it into a crest on the beach, went flying over and didn't manage to get his landing gear out.  Ouch.  What you can't see is that he's also missing skin on his forehead.   I hope you got my message yesterday, lovely person, we were thinking of you.

These are the buildings that Evan's nursery school is at the bottom of.  They are housing estates - mega blocks of flats in Hang Hau - the dark city as we call it - quite intimidating looking (particularly collectively), but very friendly up close.

This is Sasha - my dear friend Jacques and Michelle's daughter.  She's my god-daughter, and four, a few months older than Ev.  In Hong Kong terms we live far apart - perhaps another way to look at it would be three types of transport apart - a bus, a train, and a ferry.  Ev is dead keen to have her come to his party - a looong journey for a couple of hours though. 

This is Lara, friends of our's daughter - she is very groovy - though much smileyer than this photo - which I love because of it's colours - her amazing firey hair, fantastic brown eyes.  She's quite a cracker is Lara.  When she was a little girl she ruled with a high volume, high octane temper - but she's mellowed into a really cool kid.









Finally, I like the one of Aiden below too, also for it's colours - though the photo itself has him looking slightly apprehensive.

Aiden in June

A note - of thanks and admiration

I loved sitting at that restaurant and chatting to you, and loved going home and being in your space and chatting some more.  I think it's one of the nicest imaginable times I've had.  I think you have everything to be proud of Josh.  Well done; simply fantastic.  I'm tempted to post a pic of you here - but then I thought why would you want a pic of yourself on your blog?  And you probably wouldn't; so instead here is the one of you and Mia - thanks so much for it - I am really happy to have it, and the pics you patiently let me take of you.  It was good to see Mia again - albeit briefly - she seems really lovely, and in terms of everything I hear about her and her family, is rightfully so.  [The way she dealt with the phone goblin!  Patience, kindness, humour - really cool to see in a young person.]  I'm happy for both of you - it's great to see lovely people together.

Black and White Set 1 - Special People in Cape Town

 Simon is one of those gems that the human species pops out from time to time.  I could rave on at length about him - but I am simply really grateful that I know him.  Though the ease with which he seems to accomplish everything can be somewhat frustrating to be around (perhaps this is a bit like you - the ease of accomplishment that is).  Though I suspect that ease is a bit like luck, which a note that a friend of mine once sent to me said of: "The funny thing about luck is that it has the odour of perspiration about it".  He and Melissa below kindly have me to stay when I'm in Cape Town which delights me.  Melissa is like Simon in capability (though perhaps more so, because along with being one of the (in my opinion - but I'm not alone in this view) environmental law legal super-heavies in South Africa, she also is a seriously accomplished pianist and painter, whilst being appallingly bilingual as well.  And she is really lovely (which I find strange, because how do you have time to be like that, with all the other stuff going on) I really like both these photos - because I think their collective kind gentility is so evident to me.  Melissa has galacial purpose and humour - unstoppable, perpetual momentum (I learned about glaciers from Simon, there are very few places the two of them have not been.  I think what I find most lovely about them as a collective is that they are like a long zip - they fit so well together on so many levels - it's just lovely - and one of those is a sort of moral ethical level - which regrettably seems quite rare to me in people.  Ordinarily I would think that baby pics from outside the family would be a bit of a no-no on your blog.  But this is no ordinary snapper.  This is Finn - who on the basis of nature and nurture is going to be a handful for the wicked and unkind and unjust of this planet, and I thought for this reason alone he should have a place - besides it's also his house I stay in when I go there.  He's a really sweet little kid - chatty as anything (his dad can talk BIG TIME, so no surprise there), and has this delightful look of surprise on his face quite a bit of the time - as if the world is just terrifically fascinating (which it is).

After work, a walk in a park in Rondebosch, which I smiled at, because I can remember riding my very early version mountain bike (a thing called a Raleigh Bomber to be specific) down its little stream and through it's undergrowth lite.  Love the windshaped and pruned trees - a reminder of what the Cape is like.

This is my lovely friend AJ Bull - who is exactly as his name suggests - direct, placid when engaged in his own persuits, and strictly not to be provoked (I say this with a smile, because I have provoked him on many occasions - but I think perhaps I'm one of the herd).  He is not a small man.  AJ is my oldest mate; I've known him for forty years - which is as long as I can know anyone.  We've had two principle passions in our lives, fishing (I share his enthusiasm, but definitely not his expertise - in fact perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I go fishing, AJ goes catching) and now photography.  He's also followed your whole life, without you knowing it, I can remember calling him from the tickie-box (yes mate, you are now officially that old) in the foyer of Die Wilgers hospital to tell him about you just after you were born.  It was a complete delight to see him and spend time with him - though for not long enough - regrettably.  Marnie and his two girls were in the UK - so no pics of them this time.

Black and White Set 2 - Muisenberg on fire

Muisenberg was thundering on the day that I drove past.  The waves look small from the distance, but they were serious surfing stuff.  There are roadworks along the seashore, so a better option was to go over Boyes Drive - and I was really thankful for the detour. The first pic was around lunch time, and the second two on my way back in the late afternoon.   The surfers were out in force, lots in the water, and plenty up on the road trying to pick a good break in the bay.  So too were Cape-Town's finest nasties however - the omnipresent great whites.  I understand that False Bay - which is what you are looking at in the top picture - is the world's largest single breeding ground for great white sharks.  So the shark spotters were out, cool, impassive, watchful.  I really was amazed by your crocodile diving pics, next time hopefully you have better conditions and you can do these ancient nasties.  I'd love to.  See how your body responds to the ancient threat - just like your crocodile experience no doubt (man those were some seriously huge crocs).

Black and White Set 3 - Sue

I was really happy to see Sue, who as I mentioned to you had had a brain operation - not a walk in the park - and when I was last in SA in January - she had just got out of hospital and was busy with the first steps of the recovery process.  She and Shane, her ultra-heavenly husband, have just gone on a trip to the US, which looked and sounded like it was such a cool experience (they showed me the pics - man it is a place I would love to go some time).  Shane had been invited to watch the Masters at Augusta - the tournament that Tiger Woods made his come-back at.  So some of the photos were of people that you just don't expect to be that close to - and the course really looked like a feat of bio-engineering.  I really like this photo of Sue - she's so beautiful with her heart shaped face and smiling cheeks and big eyes.  It was very very cool to see her back to probably better than her old self - a brain tumour surely cannot make you feel too great. 

Black and White Set 4 - Sunflowers at the Farmers Market

While you were tucked into bed and in dream-land on Saturday morning I was up and about at the Farmer's Market.  Have you ever been?  I thought it was really nice, cool people in a good space, cheap and tasty quality food - and because we got up at 5am to go we got the joy of the breaking dawn, which I just love.  Sue goes every week and I think expected me not to be keen when she asked me if I wanted to go the night before.  If you feel like giving it a try some time you can call her - 0833 888 567 - though I expect it might be on the sharpish side of the morning for you.  I like this picture set, each one includes sunflowers.  The woman in the middle is Sam, Sue's friend, who I thought was really nice and quite unusual - a pregnant, pilates teaching architect - I reall like that pic.