It's odd to be leaving James and Claire alone in HK.  It's the first time that I'll be separated from James (apart from sleep-overs at Grandma's house).  I'm not sure what tomorrow night will look like but I imagine it will be emotional.  Claire's been especially touchy lately.

I have a multitude of items to attend to:  packing, rereading our trip notes, making a list of details for my mom, finding Tom's leftover RMB, etc.  We have mass/Sunday school in the morning and Claire has a birthday party from 1:00-6:00 (drop-off in Repulse Bay, pick-up at the Grand Hyatt).   It will be another action packed day, I'm afraid.  I also need to buy a birthday present (Dymock's, here we come!) as well as a warm hat, scarf and gloves.  It's forecast to be cold in Beijing although it appears that there may only be snow flurries on one of the days that we're there.

Nick is a fantastic speaker and the entire audience was riveted by his message.  What amazed me was that it was completely silent in the gymnasium at times.  No one made a sound at times and there were at least 1300 people present (by my estimation).

I scrapped my Beijing Power Point presentation at the moment because I though reflecting on Nick's presentation was more important.  All of my students are writing about the presentation at the moment or are writing to Nick (the latter being their suggestion). 

The main point of the speech was to never give up hope, keep trying and that everyone is loved.  You don't have to change to be loved.  If only one person present is changed today, Nick was successful.  I imagine, though, that quite a few people have been changed by what they heard today.

I am thankful to have been there.

Keith gave me the option of playing D3.  He let me pick my team.  The two available teams were G.I. Japan (typically a strong team) or Bloody Orange (they only won 1 game in the winter league and 1 game in the summer league).  After much thought, I chose to play with Orange.

Each year it's more of a challenge to come back after taking the summer off.  It takes a few weeks to begin to feel like yourself on the ice.  And what a rough first few weeks we had as a team.  We lost the first four games.  Badly.  I am still in the basement of D3 goalie stats.

Last Wednesday, our new jerseys arrived.  They are much better looking than their predecessors.  The unfortunate part of the jerseys, though, is that they are Princeton colors.  Orange & black.  We certainly fit right in with the Halloween season.

The guys played hard and we pulled off our first win.  Winning feels SO much better than the alternative.  I really like my teammates this season.

Bloody Oranges defeated the Huskies 2-0.
Bloody Orange – Cheung Kam Ming 2g, Gerald Tong 2a.  Kirsten Rendell stopped all 15 shots
Huskies – no goals.  Art Tam with 12 saves
The KEG 3 Stars of the game – 1) Kirsten Rendell 2) Cheung Kam Ming 3) Gerald Tong
Recap – New jerseys, fresh start!  Bloody Orange were decked out in their new outfits just in time for Halloween, giving the Huskies the ‘tricks’ instead of a treat. Cheung Kam Ming opened the scoring with a quick wrap around.  Was that enough for them to hold on?  Just in case, Kam Ming made it 2-0 with 3:44 remaining in the game.  Kirsten Rendell was solid in net stopping all the shots she faced.

Other big news (or not):  Tom and I finally caved on the pet issue.  We've given the green light to rats gerbils.  The only problem is that I'm not sure desert rats gerbils are easily found in HK.  Hamsters, yes.  Chinchillas, yes.  Guinea pigs, yes.  Rabbits, yes.  We're going on a gerbil hunt tomorrow.  (Tom and I were even discussing dogs-do we skip the rodent step and go straight to dog ownership.  That's the big questions.  We travel too much, truly.  We're already going to have to line up someone to take care of the rats gerbils over Christmas break.)  Claire and James are so excited about this.  Claire has been researched and researched so that she's prepared.

Lazy day today.  Neither child was motivated to go anywhere.  We eventually made it to the beach-the busy one in Stanley.  We haven't investigated the (quieter) beach that we can see from the flat.  I'm assuming you walk down Stanley Village Round and you'll eventually run into it.  Kids had fun but Claire was miffed when a girl came over and wrecked part of her sandcastle.  The mother eventually sent the kid over to half-heartedly apologize.  Claire was not impressed.

Heading to the gym in the morning.  Claire and James want to get up early to come with me. I am so NOT up for that.  I'm hoping to head out long before they wake. 

James LOVE Scotty & Lulu-he thinks they're a riot.  He's also watched the DVD's including the two that contain clips from Claire's performance as part of the Happy Crew.

Yes!

My boy’s gonna play in the big leagues

InGoal Magazine writer takes on reality TV series

Hey Carbo! Hey Bergie! Did you see that save??

If there is one other thing that Quebec culture has a passion for, besides its unbridled obsession with hockey, it is most certainly tv reality shows.  French language versions of American Idol (Star Académie in Quebec ) and The Real World (Loft Story) have created a huge following in the province.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Quebec media giant TVA gamely decided to combine the two by launching the idea of a hockey reality show.  And what better way to rekindle the fires of enmity between provincial rivals Quebec City and Montreal than the format of two teams of no-namers duking it out for the crown of Quebecois garage league supremacy?

La Série Montréal-Québec has enlisted the coaching talents of ex-NHL bench bosses Guy Carbonneau (for the Montreal side) and Michel « le Tigre » Bergeron (for the Quebec side).  The two will oversee a team of non- professionals and aspirants who either got side-tracked on their way to the big leagues or were simply too stubborn and stupid to give up the dream (I’ll let readers decide which of these categories I fit in a bit later on).  For the next two weeks 10000 (!) hopefuls will go to tryouts in the two cities, each with 15 minutes to strut their stuff.  The rules are that the teams may choose only players who have never played pro hockey of any sort; there must be three women per team, one player over 40 and one over 50.  Beginning in January, the teams will split a total of 8 games between the two cities and viewers will get to vote on whom they think  should dress for games or be locked up in the stick room, so to speak.

I figured that being over 40 would make me an ideal candidate for the post of backup goalie (i.e. why waste one of your over 40 choices on a player who has to play, when you can use it on the back up goalie who doesn’t do more than warm the bench?)  In that regard, being over 50 and a goalie would be better.  Being over 50 and a goalie and a woman better still.  I am hoping that there is going to be some kind of interview where I can point out that in addition to being a goalie coach I am a visible minority, speak three languages and look more like a status Indian than half of the real First Nations cardholders in this city.  If I can just show up in drag then maybe I will have all the equal opportunity bases covered…

My wife signed me up for this thing as a bit of a joke, noting in my application that as a kid my father had forbidden me to play goalie, and that I only finally became one by lying my way onto a team as an adult.  80 games a season and 15 years later I sort of play decent hockey (my GAA is finally under 10.  Most games).  In fairness, I am playing in one of the best garage leagues, with players that played in College or even Major Junior (way back in the 80’s of course).  But is it good enough to get a favourable nod, or even a sideways condescending glance, from the selection committee?  I’ll find out this Thursday at 12h00…

I've barely been here and am looking forward to spending more time at home.  Not exactly sure when, though.  I have errands to run tomorrow (including returning one of our new rubbish bins which was damaged when I opened the box-it's a stainless steel one and the top is badly dented).  Claire also has a piano lesson tomorrow evening in Choi Hung.  (I have no idea where, it's inconvenient AND it's Mid-Autumn Festival.)

We now have blinds.  Love them!  We also have a two awe-inspiring pieces of furniture.  One is in our bedroom and contains fantastic carvings as well as gold paint (doesn't sound like much but it's definitely a wow).  The other is in our living room and it's very L-O-N-G and incredibly painted.  I do not know how the delivery men managed to walk it up 7 flights of stairs.  It's solid.  Will post photos tomorrow when we have better light in which to take them.