Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces

Lady in the Water

Hi there, this is Charles writing on behalf of Tess. I am in Hong Kong and this morning was talking to Tess, who is still in Toronto. Believe it or not, Tess actually asked me to post the following pictures of her! Please enjoy... they are terrific and flattering shots of Tess at the cottage last week!

Tess poses on Canadian Shield rocks after swimming from the main island to a smaller island... WOW - about a 30 minute endeavour!

At left and below, Tess plays in the water with the kids. Below right Tess sits with Carys on a boatride.

Ciao!

New Holiday Pictures

You can go to Charles' blog for an update on the first portion of our Toronto trip and lots of outrageous and fun pictures. Don't forget to please leave a comment on Charles' blog to let us know your favourite pictures. Tess is still in Toronto for another week before making her way with the gang to Fintry on Lake Okanagan.

today was sebastian's graduation from kindy.

thankfully nothing so twee as kindy kids walking down with caps and gowns to jazzed up versions of pomp and circumstance, just a gathering of parents where we were presented with the kids binders, a collection of special works they had created in the two years at the kindy, a sample of their "autograph" the day they started school and as the months progressed. i learned today that sebastian is a dab hand with a needle. very interesting.

sebastian needed new sandals, new bobs, and a few other things, but first i took sebastian, annie and adam out for lunch. why bother ordering food? they licked the tomato ketchup off the chips and then ate the chips, scoffed back the white bread and declared themselves full, but very willing to eat dessert. then we took the subway (MTR in hong kong speak) to central where we had a special treat: a shoe shine.

i won't bother describing it, but hopefully the pictures do it justice. the crowds enjoyed it almost as much as the kids did. (Seb @ left with his teacher, Michelle)

tomorrow we fly. wish me luck.

as i procrastinate from finishing up the packing, etc, i am getting flashbacks to my childhood.

the morning we left for holidays was a mad rush for the breakfast table. not because we were in a hurry to hit the road, but because frugal blake had been monitoring grocery purchases for the past week. it was the fight to have no perishables left over.

"no need to buy our usual amount of milk, we won't be here the full week..." was his mantra.

resultingly, if you weren't one of the first to hit the breakfast table, chances are good that there would not be enough milk for your cereal. i didn't get too bothered, i have always liked cereal and yogurt just fine. but i thought my dad was pushing it one year when he suggested to the very late arriving graeme that he add sour cream to his honey nut corn flakes, as the yogurt and milk was all gone.

it could work in reverse as well. bread all gone? excess milk? don't drink too much tea, there isn't a wee break scheduled for 300 kilometres. well graeme, we need to finish up that milk somehow. i suggest you disguise the taste of grape nuts with, um, well, some, i've got it, premium plus crackers. just crush them up a little, chumley. then add brown sugar, and lots of milk, finish up that milk, okay, and viola.

the man was a genius.

the night before departing dinners could be very interesting as well. every single leftover from the last six months was on the table. and dad was no hypocrite. he would load up his stale taco shell with cranberry, goat's cheese, cabbage, tuna fish, a pinch of roast beef, and rice, and smile as he tucked into it. chew.

after taking a drink of water (possibly milk depending on supply) he would then suggest we all build our own before he made his second taco or whatever and all "the good leftovers were gone".

i wish my parents were here right now.

i have tried to make an intelligent top ten list, but alas failed. before the self - flagellation got too overwhleming i realised that 1980's music videos and intelligent never really gelled anyways. at last no where nearly as well as the 80's hair gelled. what was with that hair? how much time was spent getting it to stand to attention like that? did it matter which side, left or right, was smeared upward?

but it does have to say that dire straights MONEY FOR NOTHING needs to be named as the one which i feel to be the best overall video. clever, sums up the '80's excess, and there is something to be said for the fuzzy headband over the balding possibly permed hair.

however, peter gabriel's sledgehammer is a close contender. that was pretty brilliant and he didn't have to rely on scantily clad women. the fact that the video begins with what could be an ivf procedure has no bearing on the video's high showing in the ranking. super video, super song, now i just have to figure out why someone would want to be my sledgehammer. so i would always have ice in my drink?

those are the two best in my opinion, and here is commentary on two random others: near the top would also be don henley's boys of summer. don henley's face looks so fresh...if you put that face beside his current one, the boys of summer face looks like it has been freshly ironed. joking aside, boys of summer was a great video and an even better song. super stuff.

charles and i agreed on a-ha, we liked the concept and thought it was extremely clever for mid 80's.

i don't want to go into further ratings because i will do injustice to some very good songs, and it gets hard to say why they are faves. so many of these are emotional favourites.  is SOLID a good choice because it reminds me of babysitting with my brother? no.

we leave in five days. i am so busy. i have all the work i set myself to do, but there is more being assigned to me. couldn't people have given it to me earlier? apparently not.