rounding up

We just finished our last group presentation of 2006 yesterday and it feels good! Most of these assignments and projects are assigned to us only days before we are expected to produce a superb masterpiece, constructed with lots of thought and analysis, presented with flair and finesse. In a group of 6, it's rare enough that all of us can agree on the central theme, much less the finer details of the project. However, we pulled through (thank goodness for broadband and instant messaging) and managed to produce a somewhat decent presentation. Well done, group!

On Sunday, Anice stopped over for a night on her way back to Canada. After her backpacking travels in SE Asia, she came bearing lots of little gifts; we got a neat little waterbottle pouch, some green curry, lemon grass tea, and some finely rolled local Thai cigars. Thank you!

We went out for dinner that night with our Aunt Jenny, cousin David and grandfather Ma, who has arrived in HK for his half-year stay. After queueing for about 45 minutes (it seems Sundays are the days when everyone takes out their parents for dinner), we had a gorgeous Chinese meal.

Tonight after work, Matt and I got on our baseball mitts and practiced our throwing on the beach, followed by a bit of frisbee practice. We then dined at the newly-opened Irish Pub in the plaza and were treated to some live Irish music; three fellas were sitting a few tables away just playing for the sake of it, it seems. Guitar, banjo, fiddle, pennywhistle, spoons, and some other instruments which i have no idea what they're called. T'was fantastic, there aren't many places in HK where you can work up an appetite on a beach, eat delicious food and be entertained, all within a short walk from home.

Our washing machine is busted and it's been just about a week and a half now, and i must say we're getting pretty good at rationing clothes. We've had people come and take a look at it but it seems it will be too expensive to replace the parts so the landlord has decided to buy a new one, but we have to wait until the specific model comes in. Fingers crossed that we'll have it installed before we leave on Sat. Hmm... not betting any money on it.

But no matter, our thoughts are not even in HK as we are both getting ridiculously giddy about the upcoming few weeks. Looks like there won't be quite enough snow to introduce Matt to snowmobiling though. However, we've got tickets to a Senators game ("curved-stick-puckball" as he calls it) and we're hoping to try our hand at curling!