This weekend marked a major turning point. The pools at the Disneyland complex where we live have suddenly turned from Arctic to merely bone-chilling. Combined with more chlorine than an illegal weapons factory and the helpful addition of many children's number ones it is fair to say summer has finally arrived in HK. Our second home has become the swimming pool.

The weekend entailed several discoveries:
1. PB, aged almost two, sees no reason she cannot swim like her sister JC, aged 3 and a half.
2. Plastic credits cards melt if left in the sun.
3. Most of the world celebrated Father's Day yesterday, even though in Australia it is celebrated in September. Doesn't the UN have an obligation to harmonise such an important date?
4. JC's favourite word is "poo-poo"; while her parents do their best to ignore it, her Dad secretly finds it incredibly amusing.
5. Pregnant mothers of two kids find 9:30pm an extraordinarily late hour to still be awake.
6. Printing out the walkthrough notes for Myst 3 is considered adequate grounds for a lecture on the morality of cheating by Mrs M, whereas I see it as using all available resources to finish the game, just like it says in the manual.
7. I have become addicted to Hong Kong TV ads. The shows just get in the way of some of the funniest entertainment on the planet. There are only two kinds of ads: firstly the beauty ads (make yourself as white as possible, or your so fat because you weigh 40 kilograms and have 1% body fat) and secondly the Government ads (report crime, don't top yourself, protect yourself against dengue fever).
8. Would it kill TVB or Pearl to lash out on a graphics machine made in the last 15 years, rather than the el-cheapo 1970s stuff they have now? Also if a show is "presented by" a sponsor, the show's title doesn't become "Delia School of Canada presents World's Tackiest Reality Show", followed by an ad for that sponsor. It's overkill.
9. That said, the "Cotalin Reminds you" time check is stunning viewing. Never has a crappy analog clock graphic had such prime-time exposure.