{"id":421,"date":"2018-08-27T14:35:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T14:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/?p=421"},"modified":"2019-01-08T09:49:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-08T09:49:54","slug":"2018-08-20-27-3rd-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/2018-08-20-27-3rd-week\/","title":{"rendered":"2018-08-20\/27 – 3rd week"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few crazy \/ funny things this week: \/ Quelques trucs rigolos cette semaine :<\/em><\/p>\n

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Emilie’s trying on her new swimcap \/ Emilie essaie son nouveau bonnet de bain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Emilie’s ready! \/ Emilie est par\u00e9e<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Emilie’s making sure all the uniforms are lined up \/ Emilie a ordonn\u00e9 tous les uniformes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Dancing and singing \/ On danse et on chante<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Alex’s new hiding place \/ Alex est rang\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Air con’s too cold \/ La clim est trop froide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is our 3rd week here. By now we have a good holiday rhythm: no more lie-in in the morning, but a chapter of Harry Potter read in bed, followed by breakfast and getting ready. Mornings are lazy and afternoons are split between going out and going to the swimming pool. Evenings are for playing cards and watching Jang Bricks on YouTube.<\/p>\n

C’est d\u00e9j\u00e0 notre 3\u00e8me semaine \u00e0 Hong Kong. Nous avons un bon rythme de vacances: un chapitre de Harry Potter lit au lit \u00e0 la place d\u2019une grasse matin\u00e9e le matin, suivi du petit-d\u00e9jeuner et ensuite, nous nous pr\u00e9parons. Nous ne faisons pas grand-chose le matin. L\u2019apr\u00e8s-midi, nous sortons toujours faire un tour et nous allons \u00e0 la piscine en fin de journ\u00e9e. Apr\u00e8s le repas du soir, nous jouons aux cartes et nous (S\u00e9bastien et Alexandre) regardons YouTube, en particulier des vid\u00e9os sur les Lego.<\/em><\/p>\n

Monday, I needed to have my hair done. I chose a beauty salon that didn’t look too bad. I had a lovely 2 hours and my hair looked nice, but it was a bit too expensive. We also received the sport uniforms and everything was the correct size! In the afternoon, our goal was to find Alex’s stationery for school. I had found a shop in Central that looked like it had everything we needed. So we went there and we found the sign but we could not find the shop. We asked around and the shop had been closed for some time. We went back home empty handed \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

Lundi, je suis all\u00e9e chez le coiffeur, il \u00e9tait temps de refaire la couleur ! J’ai choisi un salon de beaut\u00e9 qui ne semblait pas trop mal. J’ai pass\u00e9 2 heures agr\u00e9ables et mes cheveux \u00e9taient tr\u00e8s bien, mais c’\u00e9tait un peu trop cher. Nous avons \u00e9galement re\u00e7u les uniformes de sport et tout \u00e9tait de la bonne taille ! Dans l’apr\u00e8s-midi, notre objectif \u00e9tait de trouver les fournitures scolaires d’Alex qui nous manquaient. J’avais trouv\u00e9 un magasin \u00e0 Central qui semblait avoir tout ce dont nous avions besoin. Nous sommes donc all\u00e9s l\u00e0-bas et nous avons trouv\u00e9 l\u2019enseigne du magasin mais nous n’avons pas pu trouver le magasin. Nous avons demand\u00e9 autour et le magasin \u00e9tait ferm\u00e9 depuis un certain temps. Nous sommes rentr\u00e9s bredouilles \ud83d\ude41<\/em><\/p>\n

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It started raining quite hard when we were at the swimming pool. But that didn’t stop the children playing!<\/p>\n

Il a commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 beaucoup pleuvoir quand nous \u00e9tions \u00e0 la piscine. Mais \u00e7a n’a pas emp\u00each\u00e9 les enfants de jouer !<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tuesday, we went to another stationery shop. I found one in Times Square, a very big shopping centre with multiple floors of luxury brand shops. We had trouble finding the stationery shop. It was at level -1. It was a cute shop with loads of funny things. We did find a few of the items on Alex’s list without breaking the bank. After that, we went around the shopping centre to see if there was anything interesting. I am never going to buy anything at Dior or Gucci, but there is an M&S on the 6th floor. The more you go up the less luxurious shops are. And, on the 7th floor, we struck gold: a Lego shop AND a music shop full of guitars, pianos, music scores, etc. Alex’s and Emilie’s eyes lit up. Alex checked all the electric guitars and wanted to buy all of them (he’s missing his guitar very much and is very impatient to be reunited with it). Emilie tried all the pianos on display. We found a Starbucks on the 8th floor. Starbucks are not difficult to find, but it was nice to have a hot chocolate to fill up our batteries.<\/p>\n

Mardi, nous sommes all\u00e9s dans une deuxi\u00e8me papeterie que j\u2019avais aussi trouv\u00e9e sur internet. Celle-l\u00e0 \u00e9tait \u00e0 Times Square, un tr\u00e8s grand centre commercial avec plusieurs \u00e9tages de boutiques de luxe. Nous avons eu du mal \u00e0 trouver la papeterie, elle \u00e9tait au niveau -1. C’\u00e9tait un magasin sympa avec des tas de choses mignonnes. Nous avons trouv\u00e9 quelques articles de la liste d’Alex \u00e0 un prix abordable. Apr\u00e8s cela, nous avons fait le tour du centre commercial pour voir s\u2019il y avait des boutiques int\u00e9ressantes. Je n\u2019irai jamais chez Dior ou Gucci, mais il y a un Marks & Spencer au 6\u00e8me \u00e9tage. Plus on monte, moins les boutiques sont luxueuses. Et au 7\u00e8me \u00e9tage, nous avons trouv\u00e9 un magasin Lego ET un magasin de musique rempli de guitares, de pianos, de partitions, etc. Alex et Emilie \u00e9taient ravis. Alex a regard\u00e9 toutes les guitares \u00e9lectriques et voulait toutes les acheter (sa guitare lui manque beaucoup et il est tr\u00e8s impatient de la retrouver). Emilie a essay\u00e9 tous les pianos en exposition. En r\u00e9compense, nous avons pris un chocolat chaud chez Starbucks au 8\u00e8me \u00e9tage. Ce n\u2019est pas difficile de trouver des Starbucks ici. C\u2019est comme le Mc Donald\u2019s, il y en a partout !<\/em><\/p>\n

Emilie’s been talking a lot about Abi, her childminder and she wanted to have a chat with her. So on Wednesday, we arranged a phone call. As a consequence we stayed home in the afternoon. We watched a movie together.<\/p>\n

Emilie parle beaucoup d’Abi, sa nounou de Londres et elle voulait lui parler. Donc mercredi, nous avons organis\u00e9 un appel t\u00e9l\u00e9phonique. Du coup, nous sommes rest\u00e9s \u00e0 la maison tout l’apr\u00e8s-midi. Nous avons regard\u00e9 un film ensemble : Les vacances du Petit Nicolas. On s\u2019est bien amus\u00e9 !<\/em><\/p>\n

On Thursday, we went back to our search for Alex’s stationery. This time, I had listed 3 different shops, two were in the same area in Causeway Bay, the third was in Kowloon. I was determined to have this sorted once and for all! With two grumpy children in tow (“Do we really need to come with you? You can buy all this stuff by yourself!”), I departed in the morning. I missed the tram’s stop and we had to walk back around 10 minutes. We chatted about fake boobs and plastic surgery on the way to the first shop. The first shop was nice, but had nothing we were after. We walked to the second shop (by this time, Alex and Emilie were really bored and just wanted to go to Mc Donald’s). We found everything we wanted and more. All at very reasonable prices. In addition to what we needed, we bought a chest game. It was time to have lunch. And my idea was not Mc Donald’s. When I was here with Sebastien in July, we went to a very nice Italian restaurant (Pirata). That’s where we went. We had a lovely lunch in a relaxed atmosphere, with no allergy issue. The kids even got goodie bags of sweets! Back home, Emilie and Alex traded sweets (there were some Alex could not eat) and Alex started to teach Emilie how to play chest. He was very patient.<\/p>\n

Jeudi, nous sommes repartis \u00e0 la recherche des fournitures scolaires d’Alex. J\u2019\u00e9tais d\u00e9termin\u00e9e \u00e0 tout trouver. Pas question de passer une autre journ\u00e9e \u00e0 chercher. J\u2019avais rep\u00e9r\u00e9 sur internet 3 papeteries, 2 du c\u00f4t\u00e9 de Causeway Bay et une sur Kowloon. Cette fois-ci, j’avais r\u00e9pertori\u00e9. Nous sommes partis le matin (avec deux enfants grincheux \u00e0 ma suite : “Est-ce qu\u2019on a vraiment besoin de venir avec toi ? Tu ne peux pas acheter tous ces trucs toute seule ?”). Nous avons rat\u00e9 l’arr\u00eat du tram et nous avons d\u00fb marcher environ 10 minutes o\u00f9 nous avons parl\u00e9 de faux seins et de chirurgie esth\u00e9tique. Le premier magasin \u00e9tait sympa, mais nous n’y avons rien trouv\u00e9. En route vers le deuxi\u00e8me magasin (Alex et Emilie me suppliant d\u2019aller au Mc Donald\u2019s). Heureusement, nous y avons trouv\u00e9 tout ce qu\u2019il nous fallait. Et \u00e0 des prix tr\u00e8s raisonnables. En plus de ce dont nous avions besoin, nous avons achet\u00e9 un jeu d\u2019\u00e9chec. Comme nous avions tout, il \u00e9tait temps de d\u00e9jeuner. Et mon id\u00e9e n’\u00e9tait pas d\u2019aller au Mc Donald\u2019s. Quand je suis venue en juillet, nous sommes all\u00e9s dans un tr\u00e8s bon restaurant italien (Pirata). C’est l\u00e0 que nous sommes all\u00e9s. Nous avons d\u00e9jeun\u00e9 dans une atmosph\u00e8re d\u00e9tendue, sans allergie. Les enfants ont m\u00eame eu des sacs de bonbons apr\u00e8s le repas ! De retour \u00e0 la maison, Emilie et Alex ont \u00e9chang\u00e9 des bonbons (il y en avait qu\u2019Alex ne pouvaient pas manger) et Alex a commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 apprendre \u00e0 Emilie \u00e0 jouer aux \u00e9checs. Il a \u00e9t\u00e9 tr\u00e8s patient.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Trading sweets \/ Partage de bonbons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Friday, Emilie received her school uniform (Alex doesn’t have one) and was delighted with it. She also went to the hairdresser. He didn’t cut her hair short enough for her taste. We have now tried 3 different hairdressers and I think the third one was the best, at least for Emilie, Alex and Sebastien. In the afternoon, I had an appointment with a curtain maker at our new flat. Alex and Emilie were excited to see where they were going to live next. The flat was being renovated, so it was a complete mess. But they could see their future bedrooms and were quite happy about the view and about the space in general. I also had a good look around and tried to see where everything is going to fit.<\/p>\n

Vendredi, nous avons re\u00e7u l\u2019uniforme d\u2019Emilie (Alex n’en a pas) et elle est ravie. Elle est aussi all\u00e9e chez le coiffeur. Il n\u2019a pas coup\u00e9 ses cheveux assez courts \u00e0 son go\u00fbt. Nous avons maintenant essay\u00e9 3 coiffeurs diff\u00e9rents et je pense que le troisi\u00e8me \u00e9tait le meilleur, du moins pour Emilie, Alex et S\u00e9bastien. Dans l’apr\u00e8s-midi, j’avais rendez-vous avec la personne qui va faire les rideaux dans notre nouvel appartement. Alex et Emilie \u00e9taient excit\u00e9s de voir leur nouvelle maison. L’appartement \u00e9tait en r\u00e9novation, \u00e7a sentait la peinture, il y avait beaucoup de poussi\u00e8re. \u00c7a ne donnait pas une tr\u00e8s bonne impression. Mais ils ont pu voir leurs futures chambres et \u00e9taient tr\u00e8s contents de la vue et de l\u2019espace en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral. J’ai aussi essay\u00e9 de voir o\u00f9 nous allons mettre toutes nos affaires.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Emilie’s new uniform \/ Le nouvel uniforme d’Emilie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday, the sun was out and we made the most of it. We went to Aberdeen harbour and had lunch in one of the floating restaurants. That was not a very good experience, unfortunately. Emilie wanted dim sum, but she didn’t like any. Alex didn’t dare eating any of the dim sum and was very hungry when his pork dish arrived. But he was so paranoid about what was inside that he only had a few bites. The children left the restaurant with empty bellies. We took a boat ride around the harbour and strolled on the promenade before going home where the children had pasta and ice cream \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Samedi, il faisait beau et nous en avons profit\u00e9 pour aller au port d’Aberdeen. Nous avons d\u00e9jeun\u00e9 dans l’un des restaurants flottants. Ce n’\u00e9tait malheureusement pas une tr\u00e8s bonne exp\u00e9rience. Emilie voulait des dim sum (beignets cuits \u00e0 la vapeur), mais elle n’en a aim\u00e9 aucun. Alex n’a pas os\u00e9 en manger de peur d\u2019etre allergique. Du coup il avait tr\u00e8s faim quand son plat de porc est arriv\u00e9. Mais il \u00e9tait tellement parano\u00efaque \u00e0 propos de ce qu’il y avait \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur qu’il n’en a mang\u00e9 que quelques morceaux. Les enfants ont quitt\u00e9 le restaurant avec le ventre vide. Nous avons fait une promenade en bateau autour du port et avons march\u00e9 sur la promenade avant de rentrer. Les enfants ont eu des p\u00e2tes et de la glace en arrivant \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here for the pictures \/ Photos ici<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, I woke up before everybody. ! was reading on the sofa when Alex got up. He didn’t look too happy: “Emilie woke me up with the noise of her thumb in her mouth!”. A few minutes later, Emilie arrived, also grumpy and said: “Alex woke me up by removing my thumb from my mouth!” \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Dimanche matin, je me suis r\u00e9veill\u00e9 avant tout le monde. Je lisais sur le canap\u00e9 quand Alex s’est lev\u00e9. Il avait l\u2019air de mauvaise humeur : “Emilie m’a r\u00e9veill\u00e9 avec le bruit de son pouce dans sa bouche!”. Quelques minutes plus tard, Emilie s\u2019est lev\u00e9e, elle aussi de mauvaise humeur : “Alex m’a r\u00e9veill\u00e9 en enlevant mon pouce de ma bouche!” \ud83d\ude00<\/em><\/p>\n

We decided against another restaurant experiment and had lunch at home. We left just after lunch to go to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum. At last, I saw a junk boat in the harbour through one of the windows ! The museum is by the water. The visit starts underground with a history of boat making. Then you go up one level and the rooms are lit up by big windows overlooking Victoria Harbour. This level is about modern port and all the goods that made China rich through the years. There is a third level (smaller) about sailing tools. It is a nice visit. There was not too many people so that was more relaxing. I got hooked by a volunteered guide who told me a lo of information about a couple of exhibits.<\/p>\n

Nous avons d\u00e9cid\u00e9 de ne pas r\u00e9essayer de restaurant et avons d\u00e9jeun\u00e9 \u00e0 la maison. Nous sommes partis juste apr\u00e8s le d\u00e9jeuner au mus\u00e9e maritime de Hong Kong. J’ai enfin vu une jonque dans le port \u00e0 travers l’une des fen\u00eatres du mus\u00e9e ! Le mus\u00e9e est au bord de l’eau. La visite commence au sous-sol avec un historique sur la fabrication des bateaux. La visite se poursuit au rez de mer. Les pi\u00e8ces sont \u00e9clair\u00e9es par de grandes fen\u00eatres donnant sur le port de Victoria. Ce niveau montre le port moderne et les marchandises qui ont enrichies la Chine au fil des si\u00e8cles. Il y a un troisi\u00e8me \u00e9tage, plus petit, sur les outils de navigation. C’est une belle visite. Il n’y avait pas trop de monde, donc c’\u00e9tait plus relaxant. Un guide b\u00e9n\u00e9vole m’a donn\u00e9 beaucoup d’informations sur quelques objets en expositions, c\u2019\u00e9tait tr\u00e8s int\u00e9ressant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here for the pictures \/ Photos ici<\/a><\/p>\n

I taught Sebastien, Alex and Emilie how to play belote. It was very funny. They all found it very complicated. At some point, Alex asked: “Can we play at the President instead?”. Sebastien replied: “Can we have a nap instead?”. And Emilie replied: “Can we have something to eat?” It’s good to see everyone has their priority straight! Very surprisingly, Emilie’s team was the winner in the 2 sets of games we played (and I can tell you, she doesn’t play that well!)<\/p>\n

J’ai appris \u00e0 S\u00e9bastien, Alex et Emilie \u00e0 jouer \u00e0 la belote. C’\u00e9tait tr\u00e8s dr\u00f4le. Ils ont tous trouv\u00e9 cela tr\u00e8s compliqu\u00e9. \u00c0 un moment donn\u00e9, Alex a demand\u00e9: “Pourquoi on ne peut pas jouer au Pr\u00e9sident ?”. S\u00e9bastien r\u00e9pondit: “Pourquoi on ne peut pas dormir un peu ?”. Et Emilie a r\u00e9pondu: “Pourquoi on ne peut pas manger ?” C’est bien de voir que chacun a ses priorit\u00e9s ! A notre grande surprise, l\u2019\u00e9quipe d\u2019Emilie a \u00e9t\u00e9 la gagnante dans les 2 manches auxquelles nous avons jou\u00e9 (et pourtant, elle ne joue pas tr\u00e8s bien !)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few crazy \/ funny things this week: \/ Quelques trucs rigolos cette semaine : This is our 3rd week here.[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-fullwidth.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sebetanne.co.uk\/hkblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}