So tired!

I wonder if I am somehow related to brown bear. It's winter and I feel like I need to hibernate. I am just so tired !

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to HK, and despite the original plan of having Sophie and Fab join me in a squeezy little hotel in Central, I was fed up of work, and just wanted to go home to Beijing!

I let the battery run out on the blackberry and had a fantastic weekend. What the heck the work will wait, and I will deal with it all on Monday.

We had a lazy "lau pa sat" (they have a Beijing franchise!) lunch where Sophie ate vast amounts of mee pok and mince porks and mushroom, rice and beef rendang, double helpings of papadums, fried "black" carrot cake (for my non-Singaporean friends, you do not know happiness till you have had one of these!) and ice milo. We were quite surprised that Sophie munched her way through everything - spice and all. The Singaporean Force is strong in this one.

We also went to the "underground city", which is a system of tunnels dug underground for some war (cannot remember which one). It's interesting if you like wandering around damp tunnels with a guide dressed in PLA fatigues recalling some esoteric military history facts and figures, but looking too young to shave.

For lunch we had one of those hotel brunches (with magicians and balloons and limitless cartoons!) which Sophie absolutely adored. She also showed her French gastronomic roots by attacking an entire foie gras and caviar on the table when her parents weren't looking. I also wonder where half my sashimi went!

I used to be quite worried about the stuff Sophie eats, but now that she is almost two, and has munched happily on grass, sand, mud and tuna from the floor, I take an infinitely more relaxed view on this. She's an adorable kid with a healthy appetite - what more do I want?

We sat next to a table of Aussie families and friends and all their kids. Sophie made some new little friends, and just as we were leaving one of the mums walked up to Fab and me to tell us how well-behaved and sweet Sophie was. We were swelling up with pride (or was it the third helping of chocolate fondue?). We like to believe that this may be due to that endless repetition of "Please...Thank you!"; "I can hear you no need to shout" and "Good Sharing!". We gotta believe something haven't we?