The Hong Kong Sevens – carnival of the Rugby world – landed in Hong Kong the same weekend as me, but I managed to assemble my own team to compete with anything they had to offer.

As is customary when I visit Hong Kong, I seem to gather an improbable number of friends and family members together in one place at the same time – belying perhaps how quiet life really is these days. On this trip in question, my Mum & Dad were travelling back from New Zealand, Anke, Lars and Linnéa were en-route to/from Taiwan, Sam from England dropped by for a beer, and of course Tanja & Michael were on hand to provide the floor and great hospitality. Adding to the melée were Geoff and Kipp (designers from HK) and Kai (designer from Germany). So, that sorted dinner out then.

We managed to squeeze one of most activities into 72 hours – hiking for those craving nature and escape, shopping and urban safari for Mum & Dad who spent the last six weeks staring at mountains and sand flies, and for myself a great window to spend some time with the team. Well, multiple teams, it seems. Intense and exhausting as ever; but brilliantly exhilirating all the same.

Michael in the house / on the bus.


Mum on a boat – we headed out for hiking in the really rather remarkable national park. Minutes away from Hong Kong, and you are dropped in wilderness (almost).

Dad in wide-angle mode.

Hellooo!

Okay, so maybe wilderness is stretching it a bit. But we did see some Scouts.

Tanja and Kipp chat on the beach.

Anke, radiant.

G’day Mum! Oh – you mean they don’t say that in New Zealand?

First of about 500 shots of Linnéa in the sea (for the first time?). She seemed to enjoy it almost as much as us!

Legless.

Soaring

Lunch in the surf shacks.

On Sunday, we spent the day cruising the stomping grounds of Tanja & Michael: up in the north of the city near the flower, bird and fish markets. I visited there a few years ago, so it was great to go back, and indeed it’s nice to know they live in such a vibrant area. Always fun to walk around. And so we did, indluging in a bit of light retail therapy on the way (or I did at least).

Bag o’ fish?

Out like a trout (funnily enough, at this precise second, I am listening to Mr. Scruff’s ‘The Fish Song’)

Geoff checks the LASER-ETCHED FISH. Yes, those are Chinese symbols on the side! I’ll try that with the cats.

Miffies!

Airing the house

Shoes for a dog … or twins!

Bird’s life

Widescreen

Apartments for sale

Wherever you go in Asia (or the world?) you’ll always find groups of men doing improbable things with their spare time. Is life with their wife that hard? I supposed throwing yourself off a mountain on a bike is much the same.

Forever amazed by the scaffolding.

Linnéa seems as bemused as me.