Friday night was the start of Rosh HaShannah (Jewish New Year). Made my way up that uniquely Hong Kong institution, the escalator. It rises from Central up the mid levels; it goes down in the morning for the workers heading into town, then about 10am switches upwards for the rest of the day. Entered the shule, built around 1902 and a Serphadi style building, although not particularly large. There were maybe 150 people there on Friday night. At one stage the rabbi announced the following prayer was to plead with God for a good income for the year ahead, and that on hearing this prayer God decides how much one will earn the following year. My boss happened to be sitting 10 metres away. I belted that little prayer out as loudly as I could.

After that went to fellow Disneyland inmates for dinner. 5 couples and assorted kids made for a boisterous night, although things came to a halt when the guard came up to ask us to keep it down. To be honest most of us were happy to go home and get to bed - all this celebrating can get too much after a while.

Saturday morning went swimming with JC while PB went off with Mrs M to a birthday party. I left JC for her afternoon nap and headed to a friends place to watch the AFL Grand Final. They live in the same building as Tung Che-Waa, HK's Chief Executive. Needless to say security was pretty good. The footy was good if one sided, but the best part was the real Aussie meat pies they had for lunch. For a little while it almost felt like a bit of Australia in HK.

Saturday night Mrs M and I headed down to Pacific Place, the most expensive shopping mall in HK and perhaps the world. We shopped. Then headed to a Thai restaurant for some dinner where we sat a table across from two Singaporeans whinging at the top of their voices on how expensive everything is in HK. Didn't see them skipping the Thai and heading to the McDonald's though. Got a text message from my brother, happy that his beloved Roosters won their game are in their Grand Final. Will probably watch it this weekend.

Sunday morning we again went swimming as HK is starting to get colder and we need to enjoy it while it lasts. When I say colder, it was only 30 degrees on Sunday. PB again only had one sleep, after which we had a picnic in the playground at Disneyland. The playground is going to be renovated in a couple of weeks, which is much needed as most of the equipment is old and rotting. It just means two or three weeks of torture with the girls.

Starting Wednesday is a week of holidays for China, meaning a likely slow couple of weeks at work. This means I can work on my Cantonese - my co-workers are going to be sick of being asked their name in a few days. The in-laws arrive tonight for a week of bonding.