Season's Wishes -- Frencham Family

To all our Relatives, Friends and Bloggers,

May this festive period and the year ahead bring you the hope, joy, peace, health and happiness you are seeking.

We are all Down Under right now enjoying the summer weather and the our friends and family. Santa made it here last night and the Bear and Dragon must have been good in 2008 as they had a full stocking of goodies !

Boxing Day and it will be off to the MCG for the Tiger for the Australia v South Africa second cricket test. Ah, summer in Oz -- Cheers !

Dragon Tales -- Teacher for a Day

The following is a story that Dragon developed as a creative story telling exercise at his learning centre. It should be read tongue-in-cheek (unless you're a desk!). The theme for the story is "Teacher for a Day". Enjoy the mind of an 8 year old boy!

A week ago I was the teacher for a day. My teacher was sick so I was the teacher in the clasroom. I decided to teach the kids how to destroy their desks.

1. Dynamite: First, you can use dynamite to blow your desk to smithereens. First you find the dynamite and matches. Then you place the dynamite under your desk and throw a lit match and run and then KABOOM!
2. Termites & Steel Eating Termites: First, you buy termites from Dangerous Pets. You put the termites in your desk and step back slowly. Munch, munch, munch.
3. Electric Wires: First you rip the wires out of the walls. Second, you attach the wires to your desk. Next, turn the lights on. ZZZZzzzZZZZzzzzzz!!!
4. Firecrackers: Get some huge firecrackers and put them all in your desk. Use a match to light the fuse and RUN! PHOOSH!!
5. Lava: Go to a volcano that still erupts. Get 10 lava proof buckets and collect the lava. Next, bring the lava to school and dump it all over your desk and... bbbuuullleee. Watch it melt.
6. Medieval Weapons: Go to the museum and take all of the medieval weapons! Shoot your desk with a crossbow! Chop your desk with a battle axe! Smash it with a ball and chain! CCCrrraaaccckkkkk! Bye, bye desk!
7. Missile: First you find your nearest Army base. You go there and ask them to borrow a rocket launcher. When the say no, you leave and then sneak back that night to steal it. Take the rocket launcher to school and strap your desk to the missile and press start. LIFTOFF!!!!!

The kids loved the lessons but the school was eventually shut down. There was no school for a year because the government sued them for stealing missiles. THE END.

Dragon Tales -- Wetland Adventure

Today I went to the Hong Kong Wetland Park with the Tiger. To get there we had to catch a taxi, and then two trains and then a light rail (like a tram). It is in the northwest part of Hong Kong in the New Territories.

They had all sorts of animals that need water, like fish, birds, and even a crocodile. The wetlands has both a freshwater section and saltwater section. The saltwater section was the most interesting as it had lot's of mudskippers which are amphibious fish that scoot around in the mud under the mangroves.

There were also lot's of wetland birds such as ducks and egrets and so many I couldn't remember all their names. Some were migratory birds (that spend the winter in HK after flying down from Korea and other places in North Asia). We saw some of these birds hunting for fish and muskippers. There were supposed to also be crabs and frogs but we didn't see any.

There was a butterfly section which was cool because it was totally outdoors. We saw five different types, including large ones that looked like Monarch butterflies.

As we left I bought a souvenir to remember the day: a cuddly frog that I named Hopper. And of course he is green, which is my favourite colour!

Monkey Madness - What a Week

Well, it has been a big week. A birthday, a wedding anniversary, a party and a play. Last Monday I hit the big 4-0 and had a wonderful day. I received many wonderful presents, including a photo journal of my life from the Bear, and a monkey sculpture from the Dragon. Also, I have finally joined the electronic generation and, using my new iPhone, now have all of my calendar dates and contact information on it.

The party was great, we had it at a restaurant in Soho and only left when they were shutting down and the staff wanted to go home.

This Monday the Tiger and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary. Time flies and it is hard to believe that it was 18 years ago that all of our friends and family were together to celebrate our marriage.

This week will be a busy one, the play that Bear is in (see Bear’s blog below for details) has many performances and we are in the end-of-calendar-year phase for school scheduled events.

Two weeks left of school – ho ho ho!

[Editor's Note: The Monkey evidently does not like writing about herself. The photo was inserted by the Editor -- pretty good for 40 years young!]

Bear's Blog -- A Little Princess

Hi guys! It’s been a while since my last blog post (:-). But now I’ve got lots of stuff to talk about! I’ll start posting more frequently.

I’ve been accepted in to a show called A Little Princess. This show isn’t like the movie. Sara’s father doesn’t come back. It’s almost exactly like the book. I’m Nora Carmichael. The eldest of the Carmichael children.

The show is 4th of December to the 13th of December. Going to rehearsals is really tiring. There are some that happen 2 days in a row. I think it will turn out good though. We’re doing our first performance on Friday (28th of December) I’m a little scared. We will be doing in front of 300 students. It’s a school show. We go and perform at schools. This is our first full audience. It should be really fun to see how it turns out. After 3 months of rehearsals. Break a leg!

Bear's Blog -- Camp Report

Yes!!! I survived 4days, 3 nights on Tung Lung Chau! It was awesome! In case you haven’t realised I just came back from camp. It was soooo cool (except for some parts but I’ll get to that later)! As I said, it was awesome!

I’ll start with the not-so-awesome parts. My least favourite thing would have to have been the toilets. They were squats. They smelled so bad!!!! We didn’t even have porcelain! It was just a hole with yellow construction stuff around the outside. But that wasn’t enough to scare off The Sarah!! All though for some kids it worked. My second least favourite thing would be washing up. Our group got the worst meal to wash up. Mashed potatoes and gravy! All we got was 2 buckets filled with water. By the end our water was black! My third thing is that there was no running water on the island. No showers! You should have smelled us 5th graders when we got off the bus. My fourth least favourite thing was the wind. It was really windy at night. The wind was coming off the sea. The wind flap on our tent flap was broken so the wind kept blowing in. Enough of the bad stuff - Now for the fun stuff.

Getting to Tung Lung Chau was pretty fun. We used a bus, a boat, and our feet. On the bus and boat we sang “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall!” all the way down to one.

As soon as we got to camp we got divided into groups. We had to name our groups. My group was called “The Rebel Cobras”. Cool name huh? The other groups were named “The Terrible Tigers” and “The Mosquito Brigade”. Then we set up tents. In my tent there were three girls.

The first activity we did was Tyroleaning. You get strapped onto a rope and push yourself across the line. When we did it our line was across the ocean. Our second activity was Abseiling. You walk down a cliff. I went first. It was really scary. The instructors kept telling you “Lean Back, Relax, Baby steps.” Who is going to “Relax” when they are leaning into a 50 metre cliff? When you abseil sometimes you need to lower yourself down. That happened to us. If you let the rope slide really fast it felt kind of like when you slide down the metal pole at the playground. Our third activity was Rock climbing. It was fun. We climbed on volcanic rock. It really tore up your fingers. There were three courses. One was easy, one was medium, and one was hard. Each was about 35 metres. I climbed all three.

Our biggest activity was the Star Challenge. All three teams competed against each other. The Rebel Cobras got divided into groups. Every group got sent to different activities and had to do them. When you got it right you got a token. The team with the most tokens won. The Rebel Cobras got the most. So we won!!!!

On the last day we hiked up to BaggPuss. It was a mountain. The view was ok. There wasn’t really that much to see. It was still fun.

When we finally got back home everyone had a nice pee in a not-squatty-potty and fell asleep in their nice soft beds.

CAMP WAS THE MOST AWESOME THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tiger Talk & Monkey Madness -- First Tuesday in November

We have seen some media reports that there is an election on somewhere today -- strange to have it on a Tuesday! Anyway, those of us in the know realise that, as the song plays, "the first Tuesday in November, they run the Melbourne Cup." For those not in the know, the Melbourne Cup is a horse race first run in 1861, and is one of the premier distance handicap races in the world.

Until the last decade or so it has been a race for Aussie and Kiwi horses, but with prize money of A$5.5 million it now attracts the best horses from Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and the US. So why is this the topic for a blog article? Well downunder we build our social calendar around sporting events and the Melbourne Cup is literally the "race that stops a nation" where Melbourne takes a holiday and the rest of the country has a flutter (bet) and stops to watch what happens in this highly unpredictable race.

Aussies don't stop watching when they head overseas and so today we found ourselves at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong with many like-minded Aussies at the largest Melbourne Cup event outside of Australia. The Australian Association of Hong Kong runs a wonderful event, albeit a little early to match the three hour time difference to Australia.

Before we get to the race itself, it is a tradition at Flemington that those attending dress in their best and the organisers run a Fashions On The Field where they pick members of the public to step onto the stage and be judged on their finery. Well the same occurs in Hong Kong, and our very own Tony was selected to strut the catwalk. According to Melissa, the judges then get it all wrong and selected the another bloke as the winner, but at least she got to go home with a happy finalist.

The Melbourne Cup is notoriously difficult to pick, as the length (3200 metres), the large field (up to 24 horses) and the handicap weights mean that a favourite is still often at 5-1 odds and almost any horse can win if it has the right run. Today was evidence of that as 40-1 horse Viewed got up over a quality field, but by the closest possible margin (as the picture shows).

The great news for Melissa was the betting system in Hong Kong brackets horses so that some of the long shot horses are under the same betting number. So she picked four horses and her roughie was Alessandro Volta (picked for our very own Alexander) and it was bracketed with Viewed. HK$2000 later Melissa walks away a winner while some of Tony's horses have not yet finished.

The great feel-good story of the day was that the 80 year old master of Australian racing, Bart Cummings, trained Viewed to his twelth Melbourne Cup. A wonderful result for a gentleman of the sport.

So that's our Tuesday done. Now it's over the US for the election that the other 6 billion folks wish they could have a vote in. Let's hope they get it right -- whatever that means.

TIGER TALK: Here comes the Rest of the World

These past two weeks the Tiger has visited two parts of the world that we hope will continue to provide strong economic growth to support our sick "first world" economies. A few impressions for those who have not had the opportunity to visit these parts of our planet.


The first was China, and in fact the ancient capital Xi'an -- home to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, and a city for a mere 5000 years or so, depending on when you start counting. As expected it is a city of great history, however for a country of over 1.3 billion people Xi'an is relatively small with around 3 million people in the city proper.

Xi'an is now a modern city on a par with most in the world. Despite it being smaller and inland, the economic miracle that is China makes Xi'an a comfortable, albeit bustling city.

A Customer visit brought me to Xi'an and the exciting part was that we joined our Customer (in the Consumer Cleaning and Personal Care products business) on a visit to a local supermarket and to a Consumer's home to see the products in action. The supermarket had the feel of a large European multi-level store that, language aside, most readers would find very familiar. Not unsurprising I guess.

The home visit to a middle class apartment was fascinating. The compact apartment was essential a modern blend of China meets western, except that the TV, Refrigerator, and Washing Machine were all bigger and/or better technology that the new ones in our apartment back in HK! The lady of the house was very gracious in explaing how she uses her cleaning products and what she likes and what needs to be improved. A great and invaluable morning of learnings.



This week I have been in Dubai, again for work. My, this city has continued to boom in the years since my last visit, and it really is something to see. Perhaps something like "Singapore of the Middle East meets Las Vegas" (without the Casinos). It is bold and confident, and a wonderful example of what a modern Middle East could become. I guess most readers only hear of the "big" things in Dubai, like the soon to be completed Burj Dubai which is outside my hotel window. It is alrady the tallest building in teh world at over 2300 feet, and when completed next year will be at least 2800 feet (the actual height is still a secret). An incredible engineering feet and I think it is quite an attractive building.

So I guess there are a few that question "why bigger?". Well, my spin on this is that it is simply Dubai letting the world know it has arrived, and that it can match it with the big boys. It seems to me that all of the established countries did this in past centuries with their monuments, building, bridges, and the like. It is now just the turn of China and the Middle East (or should I say the RETURN, since China has it's Great Wall, Forbidden City, Warriors, etc, and the Middle East built five of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World).

It was an interesting week to be in Dubai as the world financial markets went to pieces and an impending world recession faced a modern UAE economy that has never seen one before. Predictably folks are cautious but optimistic. The are well positioned to ride it out in a better fashion than many, and the Government here seems to be taking a very active and responsible approach to addressing the issues.

Dubai is a real melting pot in terms of local Arabs, folks from the surrounding Persian Gulf and South Asia regions, and a large international expat community. Despite the speed of growth and the mix of cultures, everyone I met was warm and very proud of their Dubai. And it was great to bump into some folks that knew what cricket was as well !


Well that's it for now. Cheers.

TIGER TALK: 2008 Typhoon Season

What a year it has been for us in Honkers -- four Typhoons (that's a Hurricane for you folks in the Atlantic, and a Tropical Cyclone for those in the southern hemisphere). We started early in the season with Typhoon Neoguri (Korean for a Raccoon Dog) in April which peaked as a Category 2 cyclone before shutting down HK as it rumbled into the south China coast. In June we had Typhoon Fengshen (Chinese for The God of Wind) which peaked at Category 3 and again went over our part of the world. August saw Typhoon Nuri (Malaysian for a Blue Crowned Parakeet) which was also a Category 3 but had downgraded when it made a direct hit on HK where a rare Typhoon Signal 9 was raised. And then in September, which is the height of the season, Typhoon Hagupit (Philippino for Lash or Flog) raised the stakes with a Category 4 Super Typhoon which roared nearby us and into the nearby China coast -- take a look at it in this graphic satellite picture.

So, this raises a few questions. Firstly, why are we telling you about all this? -- it's old news after all. Well, we have been sitting here in Hong Kong this weekend awaiting Typhoon Higos and hunkering down for a long, wet and windy few days. Happy to say that old Higos couldn't get his mojo going and it fizzed into a tropical depression as it crossed Hainan and headed north toward us. As I sit writing this we have PLENTY of rain, but none of the wind we were expecting.

Secondly, as we have mentioned our Typhoons (and those that have struck Taiwan and elsewhere) to others this season the question has regularly been raised that "if these are as strong as Hurricanes then why don't they cause the destruction we see in the US?". Well the simple answer is that everything here is built for the Typhoons that are regularly expected each year. The longer answer is that after a few thousand years of being pounded along the west Pacific coast, the folks here got smart enough to build on higher ground to avoid the storm surges, and to build strong buildings to withstand the wind (and thank goodness for us that they did). It's a very different experience to sit one out than it is to run from Hurricane Rita as we did in 2005.

Now the Typhoon season doesn't end until November and so you could yet read an update on this blog, but we are hoping the cooler weather will scare them off and we can start planning our weeks more predictably.

In closing, our thanks to Nana Marg who was in charge during Typhoon Nuri (while Mum and Dad were at the Beijing Olympics) and managed through a rare Typhoon Signal 9 -- that's something they don't teach you in Streatham !

BEARS BLOG - 23/09/08

BEAR'S BLOG (BLOGDATE 23/09/08)

Guess what? WE DIDN'T GET TO GO ON CAMP!!!!!! : ( On Monday we got told that the company running the camp for the school had put off the 5th grade camping trip because of Typhoon Hagiput. This typhoon was going to hit Hong Kong.

Now before I tell you anything else you need to know this - In HK there are different types of typhoon warnings. 1)T1. This means that there is strong wind and to be careful (Mum can still play tennis (carefully) in this - it gets windy on the rooftops!). 2)T3. This means really strong winds and to beware. T8) REALLY REALLY REALLY strong winds and EVERYTHING MUST SHUTDOWN. Including all the businesses and the transportation.

So, getting back to the typhoon. I'm actually glad we didn't go to camp because as I'm sitting here at my desk typing this, I can hear the wind whistling a tune of song, I can imagine me sitting in a tent with 6 other girls and being tossed and thrown about like dust.
By the way, we still get to go to camp we are going to go November 18th to the 21st.

Stay tuned for any disaster or big news in my next blog. BYE!!

Tiger Talk -- the Gulf Coast

Many of our friends will remember when we lived in Houston and with Hurricane Rita on it's way we took a short 17 hour drive to Dallas (normally a 4 hour drive) so as to miss the action. As history records, Rita missed Houston and the surrounding coastal areas. Unfortunately Hurricane Ike has not been so generous to many of our friends and colleagues in the region. Since the news has generally dropped reporting Ike because it had a low body count, please take a few moments to see what actually happened at this Boston newspaper photographic journal:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

Mother Nature is not to be messed with !

DRAGON TALES

I was born in the year of the Dragon and I think that they are really cool. I know a lot about dragons and so I will see how much information I can post about them. I also like video games and will give you updates on how I am doing on my PSP (when it is not on the fridge). I just finished the Wall-E game and can now choose which level I want to play.

I will post more on the weekend, I have to go to school.

MONKEY MADNESS

Yes, well, aren't we all keen. Amazing how an idea over dinner turns into one's homework for the evening! Please hang with us, no doubt the novelty will wear off, but let's see how we go!

We were lucky enough to go to Beijing for the last five days of the Olympics. Nannie came to HK to watch the Tiger-Bear and the Dragon-Ack (thanks Nannie!) and we headed off to Beijing.

We had a true smorgasboard of events. Volleyball (how does one hit the ball that hard and not break one's finger?), 10m Platform Diving (how does one hold that handstand and not break one's arms?), Beach Volleyball, (how does one's bathing suits stay where it's supposed to?), Soccer (how does a yellow card instantly heal a seemingly life-threating injury?), water polo (how does one play that and not drown?), track and field (how does one run that fast, jump that high? (sure the big pole helps), and how does one throw that far?) and table tennis (how does one possibly understand that table-tennis champions sell ice-creams, electrical goods and financial products (in China) better than TV stars?)

We had a wonderful time and were lucky enough to meet some medallists. Both of them are American, they received a gold and a bronze. (On the plus side, the bronze medallist was beaten by some Aussies!! Oi, Oi, Oi) The medallists were very nice and put up with us having our photo taken with them. The one above is of Jason Lezak, his GOLD medal and us. (For those of you who can't remember, Jason Lezak is the awesome American swimmer who swam the fasted split of all time (46.06) on the anchor leg of the mens 4 x 100m freestyle relay to give the Americans (and Michael Phelps) a gold medal...yes, he let us touch the medal.)

We also had the adventure of visiting the Great Wall. We went to a section of the wall somewhat less travelled (i.e. there were not many tourists there) at Mutianyu. If you are visiting Beijing it is worth going to. There are many segments of the wall closer to Beijing, but this is truly worth a visit. (It's about at 45 - 60 minute bus ride from Beijing.) Above is a photo of the section of the Wall we visited.

The thing I love about the Olympics is that somehow it makes us (yes, speaking for myself) an instant "expert" on anything that is televised. We were also lucky enough to see the Closing Ceremony. I think it looked better on TV, but to see 90, 000 people that involved as an audience was awesome!

OK, enough Monkey Madness for the moment: To borrow from the movie Madagascar - "If you have poop, throw it now!"

TIGER TALK

TIGER TALK - 17.09.08
Time for input from the Dad. Since we are living in Hong Kong, and I was born in the year of the Tiger -- you get the reason for the Blog title.
Well we really should have started this Blog some time ago. We are quite a connected family, with more laptops in the house than TVs, but we seem to have continued with using many analogue forms of communicating family life. Well lately we've bumped into a few blogs with friends and extended family, and so over dinner tonight we decided to start.
As I said, we should have started earlier, this year we have had plenty to write about: three typhoons in HK; trips to Australia, China, New Zealand, and VietNam; and lot's of interesting visitors and fun times. However it's no fun writing about the past, and those of you we catch up with often have heard those tales. I'm going to ask my better half (Monkey Madness) to give you an update about our recent trip to the Beijing Olympics, and then from then on it is an update of what the future hands out.
In closing, it will be a quiet late September and October for me. My beloved Magpies have dumped out of the Aussie Rules finals, and the Yankees are about to miss their first post-season since the early nineties. Good thing the Formula One is a tight contest or I would have to spend more weekend time with these other monkeys! :-)
Cheers

BEAR'S BLOG

BEAR’S BLOG 17.09.08
Before I start pouring out my life's story I'd like to apologize about how boring this looks (my parents told me that it had to be "plain") I would've liked to spice it up a little but, oh well. ;)
O.K. This is me. I'm 10 years old. I'm from Australia (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!) and ever since I was a kid I've been moving around the world. First, I was born in Singapore. Then (2 years later) we moved to Switzerland for 18 months. After that we moved to Houston, Texas in the USA for 5 years. Later we moved to Midland, Michigan(still in the USA) for 1 year. Now we are in Hong Kong. :)
In Hong Kong it's very busy. It's also a good place for a shopping spree. ;) My school is an international school and next year I will be going in to middle school (YAY!!) but for now I'm in 5th Grade. :)
Next week our class is going to an island to camp there for 4 days and 3 nights. APA is going to run it. While we are there we will get to go rock climbing, absailing, mountain hiking, and tyroleaning. It's going to be SO cool! Stay tuned for what happened in my next segment! BYE!!! :)

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