Sunday evening, July 1st, we took the kids to my office in IFC to watch the Handover Fireworks. Anticipating lots of traffic and crowds, we arrived two hours early. IFC is a large office complex and mall, also attached to the Airport Express, so we knew there was plenty of ground to cover to keep the kids occupied. Remarkably, two hours before the fireworks there were far fewer people than I expected. After finding a second bank machine (the first ran out of cash - can you imagine? ...in Hong Kong!), walking around half the mall, buying bananas at a chic supermarket (we splurged since we were "right there" and needed bananas) we ended up at McDonald’s to buy the kids a “special treat” for dinner. Now, of course, there were crowds at McD’s! Despite picking the shortest line, I also picked the slowest line. Lesson learned: never get into a line with a lot of foreigners because the ordering will be slower (language barriers)… always pick a line with people who look as though they are speaking the same language as those behind the counter. Finally, with four chicken nugget meals, a double cheese burger meal and a Big Mac meal in hand, we headed up to the 32nd floor to enjoy a quiet McMeal in my office. The kids were incredibly well behaved, probably because of their hunger – by then it was 7:15 PM and 75 minutes past their normal dinner hour. (At left, the kids wait patiently while Tess ran to buy upscale bananas. Then Sebastian insisted on taking the next picture… no kidding… Sebastian took the second picture!)
After a round of jaunts to the washrooms, the kids settled in to watch the fireworks along with a dozen of my colleagues and their guests. The novelty of the fireworks lasted, hmmmm… maybe six or seven minutes? Then the kids were far more interested in the whiteboard and markers. (Note to self: arrive early to work on Tuesday to clean-off whiteboard.) Truthfully, Tess and I didn’t blame the kids for being bored by the fireworks… so were we! The fireworks were a non-event. The only spark worth noting was the opening act: small fireworks simultaneously shooting off of the roofs of buildings along the harbour in Kowloon. We figured out later these were matched by sister fireworks in Central on the other side of the harbour. (Out of our view… it would have been very difficult for anyone to see both sets going off at the same time unless at (1) The Peak (2) in a perfect spot on top of the Bank of China, IFC, or Hopewell buildings or (3) in a plane or helicopter.)The first picture above is from the pre-show in TST… I thought it a neat shot: the pyrotechnics look like Chinese characters. (Special prize to anyone who can translate what the characters say!) Not intentional, though, the camera jiggled. Second pic is of the finale over the harbour… note the new Star Ferry Pier aglow at bottom.
I had a small incident as we left the office. One of my colleagues, also a foreigner but one with lots of Asia experience, had brought some friends, wife and two year old daughter. Lovely people, great opportunity to meet out of office hours. Everything was fine – oh, except for the sudden whining that emanated from our kids for the last fifteen minutes in the office. No matter. As I locked up my office our four kids – along with Tess – were gathered outside my office door, jumping up and down about something that I think had to do with sipping leftover Mc’OJ. I had slung over my left shoulder a cooler bag holding supplies and contingency items: three water bottles, extra juice boxes, microwave popcorn bags (just in case) and a few other items… kinda heavy. As I leaned over to mediate OJ sipping, the two year suddenly appeared and stepped into the middle of our crowd rather innocently but unexpectedly. As… she… did… the cooler bag slid off my shoulder in slow motion. With building centrifugal force the bag swung into the mini-crowd of toddlers, giving the little helpless girl (who by the way was also holding a cookie, which was about to disappear forever) a full-on smacking national hockey league body check that sent her immediately to the ground. Career limiting move. I groveled, pouring on as much daddy concern as I could muster. Yikes. ("Aiya," as the Chinese would say.) Moving on… all in all the kids were great until after dinner, about ten minutes following the guests’ arrival. They then got whiney, uncooperative, oh boy. I said to Tess later, “I always leave events like tonight wondering what people say about us and our parenting on their way home.” Naturally I set myself up with the NHL body check incident because Tess quipped back, “Well, I’m sure they think I’m a good parent.” (At left, the front page of a special section the South China Morning Post ran on July 1.)
To give the kids a really big holiday handover treat, today Tess and I took them to see Shrek 3 at a real cinema. We bought the tickets online last night to insure we had the best seats – we were in the first row of the second section. Several months ago I took Sebastian to see “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” at the same theatre. I am pretty sure that was Seb’s first time in a movie theatre. He walked into the cinema, turned the corner, stopped in his tracks when he saw the size of the theatre, and said quietly but shockingly, “wow.” When Sebastian heard at lunchtime that the “surprise” we’d been telling them about all morning was seeing Shrek 3 on the big screen he was beside himself. The triplets had no idea what was coming because today was the first time the Terrific Trio had ever seen a movie on the big screen. But “wow,” did they have a good time. Tess and I did everything possible to manage expectations by explaining to the Trio what would happen at the theatre. Then we took a taxi, swiped the Amex card to pick-up our tix, bought a boatload of popcorn, pop, apple juice and nachos, and finally settled into our seats. Suddenly wee wees… Tess hauled the Trio off to the bathrooms while I stayed with Seb. This was actually a good thing, because a very frightening preview for the next Harry Potter film appeared. Alas, they returned just in time for the start of Shrek 3… and they were mesmerized for about 90% of the film as they wolfed down popcorn, drank their juice, stole sips of Tess or Dad’s diet Pepsi, or munched on the odd M&M with mischievous looks on their faces. The other 10% it was easy to re-direct them back to the screen and of course they loved Shrek and Fiona’s baby triplets. All four kids were incredibly well behaved and a great time was had by all. One of the funniest moments of the movie was at a particularly suspenseful part when, with the whole theatre completely silent, Sebastian blurted out, “Maybe Shrek will save them!” (At left, at the end of the film the kids polish off what was left of their popcorn and assorted treats.)
The credit for seeing Shrek 3 as a family goes to Tess. She’d made plans to see the movie with Sebastian and friends last week but upon hearing how distraught I was at not seeing Shrek 3 with her and Sebastian, Tess changed her plans. (I have an amazing wife and my kids have an even more amazing mother!) It worked out to be a win-win for everyone. We came home and the kids barely made it through dinner. Tess and I had made a pact to have them in bed by 6:30 PM. We were pretty close. The Terrific Trio were asleep within about five minutes of "lights out" and Sebastian within about ten minutes of crawling into bed, despite huge, whiney objections he wasn't tired. Each night Seb takes a small toy to bed and tonight he wanted two toys. I put my foot down and said, "no." He was determined to prove to me he could stay awake. Ten minutes post-prayers I walked in to check on him... when I'd left him earlier his head was resting on the edge of his bed, as if watching TV from the corner of his bedroom all the way into the far corner of our bedroom. He fell asleep in that position. Darn... that would have been a classic picture. (Left, the front page of the South China Morning Post on July 1, 2007.)
Despite the media, wet fireworks, indifference from a lot of friends, the Tenth Anniversary of Hong Kong's Handover to China is important to us. Do we like Hong Kong? Yes we do. Do we plan to stay for a while? Most likely yes. Hong Kong has been very good to us... what's in a decade (ok, eleven years!)...? Hong Kong has been good for my career, good for us starting a family, good for the triplets who had excellent care from our faithful and wonderful support team - Lita, De and previously Mila. No one can argue with the medical care we received from Queen Mary Hospital nor the supportive and loving community we found in Union Church. I watch my friends David Brightling (stay tuned for that story) and Ray Everett leave Hong Kong and often wonder what that would be like for me.
To see some of the posts on our web site from the actual Handover and the One Year Anniversary, click on the links below.
Day-by-day, play-by-play, of the few days leading up to the handover, please click here.
