Oh, piss!

On the way to the supermarket today with Dad and Duncan.

I realised that I was desperate for a piss just after I slammed the door of the flat shut, so I went to relieve myself in the toilet cubicle downstairs. I had forgotten just how disgusting it was. The toilet lid was down, so I pissed on the back wall, some of it splashed onto the closed lid. What do I care, hey?

Dad asked me if I flushed after peeing while I was washing my hands under the tap out in the courtyard. Next thing I knew – he must've noticed that the whole floor was wet and the lid had my piss on it – he asked me if I knew why there were yellow droplets on the toilet cover, so I had to fess up that I had pissed all over it. Dad asked me why I had done it. I said the toilet was disgusting so I didn't want to touch the toilet seat. He was furious and told me in no uncertain terms that it was my responsibility to clean up the mess. Fuck! Just why couldn't we leave it, for fuck's sake?

I said that I would wipe the cover with some toilet paper, and that's what I did. Then he asked me why the whole floor of the WC cubicle was wet, and I had to tell him it was because I pissed against the back wall of the cubicle. Fuck! Dad scolded me for pissing all over the place, but he still doesn't see how disgusting that toilet is. I thought we can just close the cubicle door and let it dry – piss is 98% water, after all...

He told me to go upstairs and fetch the plastic tub (and rubber gloves) that happened to be under the dining table. Fuck! So I went up and came back down with it. Fuck! Dad went back upstairs to get the floor cloth and some detergent while I filled the tub with water in the courtyard. I poured some water from the tub over the toilet, and over the whole area I peed on to dilute the urine, and got ready to go out leaving it to dry. Dad said it wasn't good enough, and that we weren't going anywhere until it was all clean, so I threw some more water over the piss. Now it's clean, right? I complained again that the toilet was disgusting and I asked why couldn't we leave it, but he wasn't having any of it. Fuck! He said it was just old and not like the toilet in the flat, the cover which was once white had become yellow with age and that the floor looked filthy because it wasn't tiled. He asked me whether I would piss like this at school or in the flat. He also asked me if I could smell any urine in the cubicle... What do I care, it looks disgusting enough to me. He insisted that I had to sponge up all the water even though I told him it would evaporate in time. Fuck, he's being such a jerk!

I asked him why we couldn't just leave it to evaporate, but he said it would still smell of piss once the liquid was gone. Fuck! I didn't want to bend down and get my hands dirty/wet, so asked him again why we couldn't just leave it. He said that he would still smell it whenever he walked past the entrance. He scolded me for being irresponsible, saying that I should never piss on my own doorstep. He made sure that I had mopped up every bit of water possible before we could go, but I also had to rinse the floor cloth and wring it dry. Fuck! 👿 I was in a bad mood even after we got to the supermarket, so I didn't feel like buying anything. I think Duncan was a bit disappointed with me. I felt a lot better as we were about to leave, and I grabbed a few things and took them to the check-out counter with Duncan and Dad.

Deep cut!

Big hole

I now have a big hole on the underside of my big toe. I had a wart on my toe, which has been hurting for a while when I walk. 

Yesterday, Mum and Dad took me to see Dr. Mach, who started by sticking a big needle into my toe to make it go numb. When my toe felt like a lump of rubber, Dr. Mach then dug his scalpel into it and gouged out a piece, which he showed me. It was white and stringy and covered in blood, and looked pretty horrible. He then took out a soldering iron to burn out the surrounding tissue to stop it from bleeding.

You can see  from the photo that the hole is as deep as it is wide. I took the bandage off today so that I can clean the wound. It hurt quite a lot for a few days after the operation. Luckily, I got lots of sympathy from Matron when I got back to school, and I was able to skip playing rugby for several weeks. 😝😝

First day at boarding school

I'm all excited it's the start of the new school year today. I think Grandma was also excited and proud. My school, which is also Dad's old school, is two hours drive from London. Dad drove. Before we went to the school, we stopped off at the Queen's Hotel, where we met up with Debs and James – longtime friends of Dad who agreed to be my guardians. Dad says that I will be spending some exeats and term breaks with them.

Grandma, me, Dad, James and Debs, in front of the Queen's Hotel.

I'm in Dad's old boarding house too! There are ten boys in my year, and I share my dormitory with four others. I never liked sharing a room, so I'm going to hate this! I just hope they don't stay up all night talking, and that none of them snores!

My cohort, in front of our boarding house

Tuck box!

Tuck box!

I'm off to boarding school in a few days. Dad took me to M&S and bought me a suit. He was so pleased with it that he couldn't stop himself repeating how good it looked on me.

I then went to the supermarket to stock up with some of my favourite snacks – a large supply of Bounty, Creme Eggs and Twiglets! My tuck box is now so full I am struggling to close it. I think I'm all set!

Day trip to Portsmouth

Portsmouth Naval Museum

Dad's been talking about it since we were studying the Mary Rose for history last year. So today, we visited the Portsmouth Naval Dockyards. Not on;y did we see the wreck of Henry's warship in its new tank, we looked at an exhibition about the Battle of Jutland. The traffic coming in from London was bad; it was more bearable on the way back.

Iceberg

Tell me it's not a great idea to haul a bunch of icebergs from the polar circle and put them in the middle of Paris. Olafur Eliasson, an artist from Iceland did exactly that. He chose the Pantheon as  the location, installed a circle of icebergs with a circumference of twenty metres during this year's Climate Change Conference, which is taking place from 30 November to 12 December.

Mum and me in the Place du Pantheon

It's called “Ice Watch”: twelve blocks of ice is arranged like clock face to indicate the passing of time; and people can watch the ice melt in real time. Mum, Dad and I went to visit it. Duncan wasn't interested, so he stayed at home. It was cold here, but not enough to stop the ice melting.

Braces

A few weeks ago,  I had four teeth taken out. Today I got some new braces on my uppermost teeth. Dad joked  that I may be able to pick up Radio 4 in my mouth!

école de neige

I went skiing for ten days in the north of Paris with my class.

I woke up at five o'clock in the morning of January the seventh, the day of the parting and arrived at our destination at 2:30 (in the afternoon) at a big wooden house called Les Grand Pres. (I vomited on the train and the bus.) And I had to share a room with five other classmates that I don't like one bit, anyway I survived them for ten days.

In the classroom

I also  saw the snow, and one time I went skiing, it even snowed. I didn't quite like my skiing teacher she wasn't nice. I came back on the seventeenth. I know the basics of how to ski now.

On the slopes

And I  have already read the first three books  of  Harry Potter.

Back tooth

I lost one more tooth this week. It was bothering me and I pulled it out. It was one of the back teeth, upstairs on the right.

After the old one fell out, my gum was still sore. Dad noticed that there was another tooth erupting.

Chinese

I don't like learning Chinese. I have a private teacher recommended by my Aunty Kinnie, but yesterday I stayed in my room when she arrived for my lesson; she was half an hour late because of the bad traffic. My mom tried to get me to come out. I didn't want to come out, so hid under the desk in my room.  Guo Laoshi apologised for being late. I came out after Mom phoned my Dad.

Today, we went out for Sunday brunch – dimsum at a nearby restaurant. On our way home, Dad gave me a serious talking to about what happened yesterday. I have never seen him so mad before. I just know I hate learning Chinese. I'm not even Chinese; I'm British and I don't understand why I need to learn Chinese, but Dad said I was only a child, and didn't know what was good for me. He told me that he was very disappointed in me, and that my behaviour yesterday was disrespectful. Disrespectful to my teacher who came specially to take my lesson, to my parents who try to provide me many opportunities to learn new things and who are paying the bill, disrespectful to myself for wasting my own time. He said that I must work hard and make the most of every opportunity, because nothing worth having is ever handed to you on a plate. He warned me that if it happens again, he will make sure I will have to beg for everything and every opportunity instead of having them giving to me without even asking.

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Tanks for the memory

Dad took me to the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence today, and I was given a cardboard tank to build in the same design as one of the exhibits. I sat at a table with two older children. I struggled a bit with the model, so I watched them. Dad helped my by pointing to the creases I had to follow. I was very proud of my work.

Flu

My head was hurting when I went to bed, so Mummy took my temperature. She said it was 38.6 degrees, and gave me medicine to lower my temperature. I was still burning in the morning, so Papa booked an appointment straight away to see Dr. Max, who told me I had the flu. He said lots of people were getting flu at this time, and gave me a sick note for swimming for one week, and two days off school.

I wasn't hungry all the while I had a high temperature for two days. I was told to drink lots. I was very uncomfortable. My birthday is coming up, and I worried if I might die on my birthday. I started feeling a bit better on Wednesday, but still feeling dizzy; I told Papa my head was spinning around like an astronaut floating.

Try!

Sandy Bay hosted a rugby festival at their Pokfulam grounds this week. Papa and I went there first thing this morning.

Scrum down against the Stingrays

In one of the matches, I scored my first ever game-try. Papa said that although I did not try hard enough in my Spanish lesson yesterday, he would give me my bonus pocket money this week because of the try. After the match, Papa bought me an ice-cold lemonade.

My team photo

Guinness Book of Records

On the day Australia played the New Zealand All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup in Hong Kong, I played my part in making Rugby history: I joined the Guinness Book of World Records attempt for playing in the world's largest mini-rugby event at the Hong Kong Football Club grounds in Happy Valley, organised by the Hong Kong Mini Rugby Football Union.

My team, DEA Tigers, was one of 263 teams present. At the end of the tournament, I was awarded an official certificate with my name on it. Officials announced that 2,854 children had participated, playing 410 matches on the 39 marked-off pitches (see the World Records Academy entry). Just after I finished playing all my four matches, I had a big nose bleed; blood got everywhere. We were supposed to wait for all the matches to finish for the official speeches, and then join a parade around the ground. We sat around for ages, and I got bored in the end, and asked Papa if we could leave. Papa let me skip my Spanish lesson, because we were already late; we went to the club where I had my favourite fish balls with noodles.

Is that a ghost behind my shoulder?

That evening, we celebrated Halloween night. Papa and I wore new M&M Halloween T-shirts we bought together the Saturday before. Duncan and Mummy weren't here this year, but there was still a great atmosphere at the clubhouse where there was a haunted house, and the usual games were organised by the staff for the children in the estate; I hit at the ghosts and played some games. Then, I went around the estate trick-or-treating.

Home again!

I arrived back in Hong Kong a few days before school started. Like on the flight to Paris, I didn't sleep; I watched many films and drank lots of Cola.

Mummy had gone to Nanjing for a few days, and I was met off the plane at Hong Kong Airport by Papa and Grandma. A pretty lady from the airline company took me through immigrations and customs, but she was a bit confused when she handed me over to Papa. For some reason, she got hold of the card with Popo's name on it, instead of the counterfoil with Papa's details on it, making her worried she might be handing me over to the wrong person. She made such a fuss I thought she was being silly. Papa said she was just doing her job, and being careful I was being met by the right person.

Fear of flying

I had so much fun last year that I bugged/begged Papa if I could go back to Paris again this year.  Papa made all the arrangements, but I've been anxious for weeks, ever since Papa told me I would be going to France on my own. I was worried, and very much wanted Papa to go with me, but he said he didn't have any holidays left. He told me I would be well looked after by my Mummy's parents. I told Papa, and also Grandma, that I was worried; Gugu told Papa I thought maybe he didn't want to look after me any more.


Papa, Mummy and Duncan took me to the airport, and checked me in before 8 o'clock in the morning. After waiting for a while,  and phoning Grandma to say goodbye for the summer, Mummy and Papa told me to go with a lady dressed in a blue suit, and we said goodbye at the airport gate.

On board the flight, I didn't sleep. So I sat up and watched movies non-stop on the entertainment system (I watched five in total); I had lots of snacks to eat, and three Sprites to drink. Gonggong and Popo were at the airport to meet me when I arrived in Paris.

Hong Kong Rugby Sevens

Today (Friday) was a very special day, the highest point in Hong Kong's rugby calendar: it is the opening day of the  annual Hong Kong Rugby Sevens Tournament at the Hong Kong Stadium. More importantly for me, the 'minis' were asked to play some matches before the opening games of the tournament. Duncan and I took the afternoon off school, and Papa took the afternoon off to take us there.

Playing against Vallet Fort RFC (me 3rd from the left)

When we got there, the place was already swarming with children from our club (DEA Tigers) and other clubs getting ready to play. When we got inside the stadium to where our team-mates were seated, Sai Gugu was already waiting for us. After some waiting and warming up, we went to the centre of this huge grass pitch. We played about four games of 10 minutes, eight players on each side.

It started to get really busy at around 5, and the proper matches started at about 6 pm. There were some people who took the afternoon off like us, and there were also many who came straight after work. There were many thinks to see and things to buy: hot dogs, cotton candy, rugby shirts. Gugu bought me pop corn and Coca Cola, and Duncan got his face painted. He told me he saw a lady with no clothes on.

The national teams play a knock-out tournament, and it was very exciting as we watched games where the two teams each made up of seven players covering the huge pitch. It's hard work, and no wonder the games are only 15 minutes each way. I'm really glad we only play on sections of the pitch.

Seventh Birthday

Because my actual birthday falls so close to Chinese New Year this year, my birthday party was held today at the club. After Christmas, I wasn't sure if I wanted a party at all. Then, Papa and I prepared the invitations, and had given them all out in the first week of January.

I invited Calvin, Lucas, Mira, Charmaine, Lincoln and Rafael. Aunty Kinnie and Zack also came, as did Grandma, the Gugus and Maya.

My cake

Swimming gala

Papa, Duncan and I took part in the JC Water Challenge today. But before it, Grandma and the Gugus and all of us had lunch together to celebrate Papa's birthday.

I was disqualified for a false start during my freestyle race. They didn't stop the race and I kept on swimming until I got the the finish line, thinking I had won my heat. I was upset that I didn't get a medal, but both Duncan and Papa got medals in their races. I don't ever want to do swimming competitions again. :-( Sai Gugu promised to write to the JC to complain about them not stopping and restarting the race.

The bus company

 Papa showed me the letter he received from the bus company about Hibou. It said that they immediately checked their records but found no record of him being handed in. Boo! I hope whoever picked him up is treating him well.