Birthday At The Beach

Last weekend was slightly special because it was Craig and Graham's Dad's birthday on Saturday. It was even more special than that because the boys were taken to the beach at Bai Sha Wan. The trip on the MRT was uneventful.

A ride in a taxi from Tamsui caused trouble for both boys. Motion sickness is never fun. After arrival at the hotel, Craig immediately tried out his bed. He seemed quite happy with it.

The next order of business was lunch at Hana's Beach Cafe where Dad had one of their excellent mango smoothies to celebrate the occasion.

The weather was perfect for an afternoon at the beach. Craig had a good time but Graham isn't quite so excited about beach activities.

Graham and Mum stayed for about two hours before they headed back to the room. After they'd left, Craig and Dad went up to the far end of the beach where there were no waves. Craig stayed in the water with Dad for half an hour and they had plenty of fun.

But Craig started to get hungry. After a nice bath and an early dinner there was a walk on the beach.

Eventually Graham brought the walk to an end by sitting down in the water thus requiring a change of pants.

Craig's Dad forgot to take a camera to the beach on Sunday morning. Following an uneventful bus ride back to Tamsui and then lunch, the boys played on a nearby jungle gym.

Craig showed off his backwards-sliding skills.

And Graham was quite adventurous climbing on this thing that is obviously meant for bigger kids. It was a nice end to a good weekend.

Parks Are His Life

It's been a couple of weeks since anything new appeared on the blog. The recent weeks have included events such as a weekend celebration at Craig's new kindy. The kindy couldn't be much closer to home. It's right across the street in a church. The event started early and Graham didn't walk over there until after his (rather late) breakfast. His second cousin Ying-chi,who lives downstairs, was there to say hello.

The big fella at the back of this photo, You-ding, is almost the same age as Craig. He's another second cousin and lives immediately upstairs on the fourth floor.

There was some singing and dancing at the event. Craig's Mum did a lot better than Craig at following the movements and singing along.

Another recent event was Craig and Graham's Mum going back to being a working person. That means Graham spends all day with Dad during the week. It also means that Graham goes out to the park as often as the weather permits.

This is Graham's favourite slide.


He can sometimes play there for quite a while.


He also likes this little rocking horse. Despite it being designed for use by up to four children Graham will often wait for others to get off before getting on to rock by himself.

He has a rocking-good time.


Craig gets out of kindy at 4:30 and has plenty of time before dinner to play. Unfortunately the weather has been a bit wet recently so most of his playtime is spent at home.

He's become quite good at constructing things with wooden blocks.

The design of the tunnel on the left was Dad's but Craig did this one all by himself by re-creating a tunnel that had been built a day earlier. The design and construction of the tower on the right is all Craig's.

Graham's adventures at local parks also feature a lot of walking up and down things like this concrete bench.

It's important for Graham to get exercise but his Dad would prefer it if the boy found somewhere he couldn't fall down when just going for a walk.


Graham's days are much happier when they are filled with playing in parks.

Where he can occasionally get his hands on other children's toys.

At home, a new tub was purchased to be used as Craig's bathtub.

It was first employed as a toy and the boys had lots of fun being pushed around.

But, it was a very cheap thing and the wheels on the bottom soon stopped turning. So, the boys had to just sit in it.

Graham is rapidly becoming a proper toddler who can play with his brother. Whenever wrestling starts he loses every time but Craig has been very good about being gentle with his little brother, so far.

Little blokes like Craig and Graham don't appreciate the difficulties of international travel. They don't know nor care that Aunty Suprana lives in faraway London but they both seemed quite happy to receive hugs from their aunt when she recently arrived for a brief visit. Being a kid is good sometimes.