I like to use the first entry of a new week as a time to recap the events of the weekend. Usually it gives me time to make pithy remarks about life in HK while keeping the family up-to-date with our goings-on. However rather obviously there was a major event that has caused much soul searching over the past 24 hours or so...but we'll get to that in turn.

Firstly Saturday morning was spent idling. I mean the "I" in idling, as Mrs M got up with PB and JC and allowed me to claw back some of my sleep-debt. Dressing for the day, I immediately reached for my almost-real Wallabies jersey and spent the day wondering around HK in a Stanley market 3 sizes too big 2 season-ago footy jumper. Mrs M and I left the girls for their afternoon nap and raced around doing various errands. A quick trip to Wan Chai followed by an even quicker one to Great at Pacific Place. Great is a massive up-market supermarket. Up-market means they stock plenty of goods from around the world at around-the-world prices. Dutifully following Mrs M around we were met with a "Go Wallabies" from the butcher, who of course was an Aussie. Several minutes of light banter and 24 sausages later we were best of friends, brought together by stuffed meat and Rugby.

If you were walking around the pedestrian area in Causeway Bay about 2pm on Saturday afternoon you would have seen us. We did not have the road map with us and the usual way through seemed to have a detour. Plus a sign saying no entry. And another announcing it was all a pedestrian walkway. But we took them all to be mere suggestions. So we ploughed through. Didn't hit anyone although we certainly got plenty of stares. I like to think many of the comments in Cantonese were wishing the Wallabies the best of luck for the night, but I can't be too sure. We made it through and didn't have to suffer the indignity of taking the detour. Then we had the pleasure of an hour in IKEA. What those Swedes don't know about plasterboard furniture is just not worth knowing. It's all cheap yet it all looks moderately passable, in an inoffensive Scandinavian kind of way. Yet with a couple of kids cheap good given it will be chipped/smudged/smeared/painted and has a half-life of a year. Of course we came out of there having spent the GDP of a small Central American country.

Raced home to prepare for the multi-national hordes who were coming to watch the RWC final. We had representatives from Australia, England, France, USA, Sweden, Ireland, South Africa and even Melbourne. Mrs M went into hostess mode and put on a spectacular event which I can't even pretend to have made a contribution towards. The game itself was a cracker, with Australia coming from behind twice, only to lose in extra time. There were some bits that made the night interesting. Firstly our cable box has been playing up: it sometimes "freezes" for up to 15 seconds at a time. It has been getting worse. So after a first half of alternating between edge-of-seat viewing and absolute terror at not knowing what was happening, a plan was hatched. A fellow Disneyland inmate went and got their cable box and we switched them. It worked. And Cable TV are getting an irate call tomorrow. Also PB got a little freaked out twice: once when her daddy hit the floor in priase of the Lord our God who let Flatley kick the penalty that tied the game up in; the second when a certain Englishman raptourously pounded the windows in celebration of the final winning kick. England were deserved winners and can now spend the next 40 years waiting for another World Cup victory, in any sport. Of course they won't mention that at the same time Australia completed a 3-0 whitewash of England in Rugby League. But no bitterness here. It was one of the great Rugby games of all time. Not surprisingly the English contingent were set for a massive night, while the thought of going out suddenly seemed miles from my mind. Like any patriotic Aussie male, my patriotism is shown via sport more than anything else. All I can console myself with was the myriad of other sports we are world champions in.

Sunday morn I returned Mrs M's favour and got up with the girls. Of course PB decided it was "scream-a-thon" morning, while JC decided PB made a delightful toy to strangle. Using my negotiating powers we eventually reached "peace in our time", which was 8am. Later we snuck into the HK Cricket Club for some pool and playgroudn time before returning for schluff time. In the afternoon we had visitors drop in for a quiet afternoon.

Had to change some lightglobes this evening. We had replaced the old ones but had put in by accident that horrible white light that makes fluroscent lights seem good. It seems to be the more popular colour for lighting HK but not for this little Aussie family. After finally finding the "Cool Daylight" bulbs to replace them, I perched precariously on the table and stool to reach up and change them. Of course in HK Cool Daylight is just another name for white. Now I know you're not meant to look at the sun, but any 4 year knows daylight = yellow, not friggin' white. But HK's consumer protection laws aren't so strong. Instead I marched back to the local supermarket with the world's most expensive light globes in hand and found the "Warm White", which using the same logic had to be yellow. Headed to the checkout. Now in HK most of the checkout, ummm, well, not chicks, let's call them checkout women, have name tags that also tell you if they speak English. The wonderful rostering at Park 'n' Shop meant not one English-speaker was on duty. This was a good thing. Why? Because I had no receipt for said expensive light bulbs. So I marched to the checkout and told the lady I wanted to return this and buy these other two. She had no idea what I was saying so she sent me to the supervisor. She also had little idea what I was saying. But with some hand gesturing my intent was made clear. Then the question came: "Receipt?" I looked her straight in the eye and told her I had none. This was cunning on my part because one thing local people abhor is confrontation. There was no chance of the supervisor making a scene. She simply accepted the return and told me to bring a receipt next time. The truth was I had bought the light bulb from that supermarket so there was no real crime committed.

But Western chutzpah tends to go far in these parts. As Cable TV will find out tomorrow.