Jackie's Birthday

If was a weekend to party as Jackie celebrated her birthday last Saturday. The celebration started Friday night at the "Whiskey Bar" at the StarWorld Casino in Macau. The celebrating continued Saturday with an Indian curry feast with two other couples. Sunday saw us having a celebration at home with a family dinner and chocolate cake! Jackie is one year older than she was last year.

Danielle Graduates

Last Friday was graduation day for the Senior Kindergarten class at TIS. The ceremony started with Danielle's class singing the following songs for those in attendance: "Alice the Camel","Kindergarten", and "Grade One Here We Come". Each graduate then put on their robe and walked across the stage to get their certificate from the principal. Danielle was quite nervous before the event but nevertheless enjoyed her special day.

Mel and Jackie Escape to Hong Kong

We have been in Macau for ten months now and the two of us have not been away from Emily and Danielle for more than a few hours at a time. Let's say that an overnight trip away from "the kids" was overdue. On Saturday morning Jackie and I dropped off the girls with friends of ours and we caught the 9:30 ferry to Hong Kong for a weekend of "freedom".
After checking in at our hotel, we headed out shopping!! Jackie bought some clothes at H&M while I purchased a Nintendo Wii. In the evening we had a quiet dinner at a French restaurant in Times Square and then we did some window shopping on our way back to the hotel.
Sunday started with sleeping in until 8:30 (late for us) and then we headed to Stanley Market after breakfast. Although this is a fairly touristy place, the clothing and other goods that are found there make it well worth the trip; more clothes!!
We headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and returned to Macau on the 4:00 p.m. ferry. All in all it was a great weekend.

Rainy Season

People have told us throughout the school year that June was the "rainy month" and that most outdoor activities would be affected. Now into the second week of June I understand what everyone has been saying. Last week it rained five days out of seven with Friday being the worst. There was torrential rain for a continuous 24-hour period that dropped down a whopping 30cm of rain. The rain was very loud and so heavy that visibility was extremely poor. Thankfully the heavy rain lasted on one day and now we are back to occasional showers.

Poker Comes to Macau

As Macau is the gambling mecca of Asia, it was only time before hold'em poker arrived. Two casinos now have poker tables for those so inclined to play. The newest casino to get involved with poker is the Grand Waldo and it is hosting a large APPT event in September. As a build up to this event there are many qualifiers being held between now and then. A number of us went to play last Thursday with the top three finishers getting a free spot in a buy-in qualifier on the weekend. I was fortunate enough to win a qualifying spot but unfortunately was unable to use it as Jackie and I were taking a trip to Hong Kong.