GZ Boys and Toys

I have been remiss in not keeping up to date with things.  But who can blame me?  I've had a very busy month.

January is the HK Toys and Games fair month and as always, I had visitors from out of town. Once again my Hendrik came to stay.  I knew we would have to have a party for him. This time I managed to convince him to get a visa for China and off we went.

The weekend was pretty dull as far as boys and toys go.  I had things to do so we didn't spend a lot of time with the guys.  A Saturday night party was planned and i have to say, I'm very  proud of Hendrik.  He survived a boys and toys and did it with great gusto!

We met Ming and had a late lunch, then headed over to Mr. Fok's warehouse.  After gathering at the old one, we headed off to the new place and took a look around.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Mr. Fok announced that if we would assemble them, we could have a new puzzle.  We set off!  7 people, almost 2 hours later, and we were finally able to assemble 6 puzzles. One for each of us.   Truth be told, Hendrik and I didn't do much assembling.  I put the pieces in together and Hendrik did all the screwing.  As for assembling the actual puzzle, we really struggled with that part.



After assembly we went to a restaurant near Mr. Fok's old warehouse for dinner and puzzling.  There were around 20 of us there.  Many had flown in from far parts of China.  I'd like to say it was to see me, but I'm pretty sure I am no longer a guest of honor.  I've been one of the boys for too long.

I had jokingly told Ming before the dinner that Hendrik only ate pizza, and he offered to go run buy some for his dinner.  :)  See, we aim to please.  In the end, he even managed to use chopsticks!

At dinner we all chatted and ate as usual. Beer too of course.  As usual, Rox got pretty drunk pretty early on so she doesn't remember all who were there but I'll give it a go.

Witeden brought along his new 2x2x2 megaminx and handed one out to Hendrik.  A lucky draw was done for two more and your girl managed to get one.  Yipee!  We were also both gifted a transparent Mixed up Cube.

Da Yan, Mr. Fok, Ming, AJ, Michael....The usual suspects.

Ayi came down and brought his newest metal puzzle along, Gan brought his, goodness, my brain is addled after all this time.  There were many many more.

I had made some hinged cubes for everyone and brought long a burr and a wire puzzle for the first two people to assemble them.  A good 10 minutes worth of fun that was.  Those boys are quick!

DaYan gifted us a copy of his new pyraminx and signed them for us.

Hendrik very kindly passed out some of his exchange puzzles to the organizers and a few puzzlers that were there.

As usual, as we ate we puzzled.  There were loads on the tables.  After most of the food had gone, conversations started up and people started to move around.  Hendrik taught us a rope trick, Michael gave speeches, Ayi took photos.

Eventually we decided to leave and ended up in the usual KTV club.....Now I have to say, this was probably the best time I have ever ever had in a karaoke club!  I wont bore you with details, but fun it was. We went the distance.  Headed back to the hotel around 3 in the morning, and after just a little bit....I was sound asleep.