Taj in Motion

4 months and 3 weeks...

Here he is playing his invisible piano:

Here he is rehearsing for an important ballet audition. The judge looks impressed. Alex thinks he's going for slam dunk.

Bat Cat..

That was exhausting....

Photos taken by Alex Nightingale

I love Taj

He has been called Taj now for 24 hours, so that's his name.
We've had Taj for two days, and I'm considering asking my boss if I can take caternity leave.

Here are my reasons:

* He kept me up half the night last night, crying

* I worry constantly about how much he's eating, weeing and pooing

* If I'm not paying attention to him he screams

* He wants a brother

* David says we bought more stuff for his homecoming than for any of our three children

* I think he cost as much as a human hospital birth

* He has to be supervised because he puts inappropriate things in his mouth, like dust and thumbtacks

* He is absolutely adorable and I don't want to leave him

He is absolutely hilarious. His temperament and personality are so not like that of a normal cat. When my husband was washing up, Taj accidentally stood in the hot sudsy water and didn't mind one bit. When we open the fridge Taj stands up and tries to see what's on the shelf. He is a very good kisser. He talks all the time. He loves to play. He's adorable.

We're hoping he'll settle in a few days without his litter-mates, otherwise we may have to adopt another child - I mean Bengal - soon.

Introducing......

NINJA !

This morning we picked up Ninja, our Bengal kitten. He is four months old, and at the flat where we collected him, he was a maniac! He played with the little pug dog, and didn't mind when it bit him on the neck or head, or walked around patiently while the pug held Ninja's front leg in his mouth. He attacked the Pug, played like crazy, and ran at a million miles an hour.

When we came home it was a completely different story. He walked around a bit, played with some of the toys we bought him, and then chased Hugo. I encouraged Hugo to play with him, and Hugo jumped around in a chasing stance. The cat went hysterical. He bolted under the dining table, and screamed at Hugo for several minutes. It wasn't just fear, he sounded really angry. It was hilarious. For the rest of the day, he mostly hid under Rachel's bed. He's walking around exploring, now. The breeder said he would hide for a couple of days, so we're not too worried. He hasn't really eaten though, which is a worry, but apparently that's common in Bengal kittens. They think it makes them vulnerable in a dangerous situation.

He isn't living up to his name yet, which isn't set in stone, but we've debated so much that since everyone thought they could live with it, that's the best we can do!

His fearfulness today reminded me of when my dad brought our German Shepherd Ceaser home, when I was very young. He was a large puppy, and he ran round and round the central wall in the house, so scared of us. He turned out one big scary dog, so I'm sure Ninja's personality will develop over the next few weeks:)

NEWSFLASH - THE NAME DISPUTE CONTINUES....

The Macau Venetian

I meant to post about this soon after we returned, but didn't get around to it. A couple of weeks ago, Karen, Whitney, Rachel and I took the Cotai Jet over to Macau, to do a girls' overnighter at the Venetian.

The trip over was lovely, despite the poor kid a few seats over who filled his sick bag repeatedly.

I have to say that I was feeling pretty smug about staying at the Venetian. We rarely stay in hotels, and it wasn't cheap. So I was feeling like I was just a bit special. Imagine how I felt when we got off the ferry and saw 200 other special people queued up to get on the front bus in the line of shuttles going to the hotel. The fact that there were so many other special people diminished my specialness just a smidge.

The hotel is huge. H-U-G-E. It took us about twenty minutes to walk to places. The first impression is opulence and h-u-g-e-ness. There is a lot of gold and marble. Well - gold paint, anyway. I guess having just spent a month in Paris, spending lots of time at the museums and other places of beauty, the Venetian seemed a bit odd. I asked my friend Karen how it compared with the Venetian in Las Vegas, and she said that some parts of the Macau Venetian seemed a bit cheaper. I couldn't really get past the ceiling murals, for instance. They just looked... Let me just say that nobody would ever think they were in Versailles or the Louvre, looking up. Let's not even talk about the gondola ride, up and down a fibreglass canal, about 50 metres long. Our gondolier was lovely, and sang beautifully, but something didn't quite true about her American Italian accent. I asked her what we should try and see in Macau, and she rattled off a list of other casinos on the strip. I thought I might have slipped into a Star Trek episode on an alternate earth.

The room was absolutely beautiful. We loved it. And we had a ton of fun together. The other three had a manicure after we checked out, after which they all felt highly pampered. They loved it. I think it would be great to come to the Venetian there if you were going to hole up and be pampered the whole time, and spend time in the beautiful swimming pools, where you were passed robes and towels. The pool area was beautiful. The housekeeping service was swift, polite and efficient.

The concept of the Venetian is fascinating. After being shuttled with the other two hundred people, from the ferry, you enter what is virtually a small town. The false blue sky inside is brightened and darkened to gently suggest the passage of the day. It's complicated to get around. Very complicated. Karen said that when she realized that not everything on the map was on the same floor, it was easy to understand. I understood that fact, but I still found it extremely confusing. One of the problems is that the casinos are in the heart of the complex, and if you have under eighteens, you have to go up and down floors to get around the vast array of poker machines, blackjack tables, and all the other paraphernalia.

I realized that the Venetian is designed to keep you in. You're miles from the old Portuguese Macau that you read about on tourist websites. And it's really hard to find out how to get there. The hotel certainly doesn't offer any information in any of the materials in the room. They don't want you to get out. Another strategy to keep you in, is to provide food at every price level. A large food court offers a very wide range of cheap eats, including McDonalds and other western fast food restaurants, as well as tons of Asian possibilities. There are also expensive restaurants scattered around, away from the food court. There are dozens of shops, selling top end labels of clothes, jewelry, and other must-haves.

We had a wonderful time in our beautiful room, and we ate well, but I found the Venetian a little overwhelming. One reason I would fly back there in a minute, is to see Cirque du Soleil. I LOVE Cirque du Soleil, and will get over there some time to see it. The Venetian hosts really BIG events, which no doubt draw thousands into their gold and marble town.

I had a fantastic time with my much-loved friends. The Venetian was a bit surreal.

Weather update

T8!! Although it's not as wild right here as it has been in the past. David said he read that it will be closest at midday. Don't forget - http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm

A new addition to our family

Tomorrow, we are collecting our new Bengal kitten from a breeder somewhere near Kowloon. We are all looking forward to this incredibly. I won't say that the cat will replace Alex, who goes off to college in the US in a couple of weeks. I also won't say it will fill the gap left by the Ormsby's. But it will be distracting and fun.

Bengal cats are loaded with personality. Look them up on youtube. Ours is a golden colour with beautiful rosettes. We are tempted to get two, but they're a bit expensive.... and if they turn your house upside down the way everyone says, maybe one is all we can deal with straight up.

I think that thinking about the cat also contributed to my non-sleeping last last. We have been throwing around names for our golden boy, and here are some possibilities:

Zeus is the frontrunner. We all like it, but we're not completely decided. I also like Hercules and Mordecai. Rachel also likes Louis, Cucumber and Oliver. Alex is in favour of Burger and Pogo. Hugo is sleeping at someone else's house, so that reduces the name confusion a bit. David still likes Bangalor Torpedo, since he never got to name one of our kids that....

Pictures coming soon!

We love the Ormsby's

We recently had Karen, Whitney and Alvan stay with us for ten days. It was absolutely, blissfully wonderful. I can't write about it yet though. It was absolutely horrible when they went home. I will write about it soon, when it doesn't make me so sad.

Let's talk about the weather

It's about 5 am, and I've been up for a while, after finally getting to sleep at about 2:30. The HKO has posted a T3, and expects to raise it to a T8 bt 5:45. I don't know what it is about the weather in Hong Kong, but it is fantastically exciting. Well, I suppose I do know. It is prone to extremes and it changes rapidly. Typhoons blow up out of nowhere, and come and go within a 2 or 3 day period.

Before I came here, I thought the weather was, well, boring. I was only aware of it when someone said it was going to be particularly cold or hot. But here! For starters, they have an amazing weather warning system. T means 'typhoon', and there are various levels. If it goes beyond 8, you'd better get under the bed. There are also rain warnings - amber, red and black. In the case of black rain, or a T8 warning, all public transportation shuts down, and businesses close up. Every school or workplace has a weather warning policy. There are also landslide, thunderstorm, strong wind, flooding and extreme temperature warnings.

What really makes it thrilling is the Hong Kong Observatory website. http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm It's the most exciting thing on the web, when the weather is astir. I've had it on all day, in the background, and I check it every few minues while at the computer, and every half hour or so when not at the computer. Will the T3 change? When? What other elements will come to the plot? A landslide warning? The Observatory posts comments frequently during action periods, and I can never wait for the next instalment. One of the most exciting aspects of the site is the Cyclone Tracker. You can watch the path of the cyclone, and its expected journey. It's updated frequently, so you are always up to date. If there's a thunderstorm on, look at the lightning tracker, where you can see each place the ground has been struck, within fifteen minutes of it happening. The Observatory also runs seminars for the public - in Cantonese, alas.

In times of peace, there is the Director's blog. I admit it. I read it. I like it. You should read it.

Of course, I'm checking it while I write this, and this was just posted:

At 5 a.m., Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri was estimated to be about 170 kilometres south of Hong Kong (near 20.8 degrees north 114.3 degrees east) and is forecast to move west-northwest at about 14 kilometres per hour, edging closer to Hong Kong.
Local winds continued to strengthen gradually over the past few hours. The Observatory will issue the Gale or Storm Signal No.8 shortly .

The anticipation! The anxiety! I really should get some sleep. I have a lot of school work to do....

I guess Alex won't be going to work at the HKU library today.

I'm going to try and sleep, and ignore the wind banging things around outside....