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.