Well, we have reached mid-May, and you know what that means?
We are 26 sleeps away from June 12th when we take off for Portugal, Finland and Sweden for 7 weeks of Summer, hooray!
There is a lot to accomplish in that time and friends to farewell however the general feeling in the air is a buzz and excitement over long summer days at the beach, playgrounds, sorbet and amazing European tapas and fresh seafood. We will be spending time with Raija, Jussi, Matias and Johannes in their new apartment in Helsinki as well as their Summer cottage that we were so fortunate to enjoy last year; we are very excited about returning there and about seeing Hannah’s friend Johannes that she went to school with for years in Shanghai.
Speaking of friends from Shanghai, as I sit typing this, Hannah is by my side on Simon’s laptop writing her own blog post on the new blog that has been created for her and her best friend Sydney to communicate to the world about their travel experiences, book reviews and whatever else takes their fancy. Their blog is the culmination of a five year friendship that has seen them visiting with each other in Thailand, America, nearly Abu Dhabi and this Christmas, Australia. They have written letters, skyped and e mailed and as parents we see www.overhereoverthere.com as a great way for the two of them to continue their relationship and encourage each other with their writing, reading and technology skills.
May has seen Mimi in the second month of her schooling at The Wonder Center. We are so impressed with the work that Sue, her teacher, is celebrating there and feel very fortunate to have this sort of opportunity for Mimi just around the corner. She currently attends 5 days a week from 8.30 – 12.00 and come August this will increase for another couple of hours each day with her making and eating her own lunch there. So far she has cooked her own peanut butter, bread and muffins and has a lovely time each morning with the close-knit group of ten students aged a year younger and older than she is. If you are family or just a fan of cute Mimi… click on the link to photo pages and you will see what amazing facilities this place has and why we are feeling so fortunate, it is an early childhood centre’s dream come true.
Enjoy some of our photos and please take some time to check out Sydney and Hannah’s blog one of these days. It is a very exciting project for them and for their parents.
This is the best fun ever ever ever. Over the Christmas holidays back in 2008 we stayed at Miranda and Andrews a fair bit and one fine day Andrew woke up and decided to make a water-slide and Simon decided to make a movie about the making of a water-slide. I don’t know who had more fun, the grown ups or the kids, well actually, yes I do, it was the grown ups for sure!
As always, wait for the video to load for maximum viewing pleasure and be sure to leave a positive and friendly comment to encourage Andrew for his next big project… surely a go-kart track is needed at Donald Land???
After checking out Sharon’s blog and hearing about Photo Peach this week from Amy, I thought I’d check it out while I lay here bedridden after eating something shocking in the last 24 hours…
I found it pretty slow to upload photos from iphoto and wasn’t really sure how effective it would be… the photos are nothing amazing, I was just experimenting so next time I will choose more wisely, as for the wording…again, just having fun although this is something I think I will enjoy about photo peach in the future…
See, I told you I would enjoy the wording aspect…still bedridden, still learning…but broadening my horizons a little…
As we are never ‘home’ at Christmas and don’t want to lug our gifts around with us on holiday, we open our presents on the last Sunday we are in Shanghai. Well, that was last Sunday and it was a lot of fun.Thanks to everyone who sent gifts and cards and to those still on the way, don’t stress (Mum!) we will love receiving them whenever they arrive.
Yes, it was still dark when we started opening the presents! Seems like yesterday I was the one waking my parents up to do the same thing. Mimi will be 3 in January and Hannah 9 in April. They are talkative, active, literary, loud and bossy yet also sweet, kind, generous and cheeky…we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Today is the last working day of 2009 for us and for the first time in 4 years we aren’t flying anywhere today (always sooooooo stressful getting to the airport straight from school) and we are not going back to Australia either. While it will be difficult being away from Aussie family and friends we are pretty excited about chilling out on the beach… The last time we had an ‘un-Aussie’ Christmas was in 2004 with our terrific friends the Ramplings in France and it was great so we hope this one in Thailand with the Munnerlyns will also be wonderful. We will be spending 3 nights in Bangkok with other ex SAS friends, Tara, Dale and Sojo and then heading down to Phuket and staying at Rawai Beach …not bad hey?
Other events of the last few weeks are below and include Han’s 3rd grade recorder performance at the Christmas concert, her science fair which was lots of fun and hanging out at the amazing new playground opposite Green Court, yes, you know, under the power lines!! Love it! See how it has turned out Col and Sharon, I tried to take some shots to put it in perspective for you, it is a really great set up, the skate park area etc is really cool. Although the fun sort of ended when Simon found us and told me that all that ‘keep off the new playground’ ‘limit line’ ‘beware or danger’ tape was there for a reason…Spoil-sport…Jen, you would have been proud!
I hope you took the time to check out the couple of signs posted in the park (just before the children playing under the power lines). We LOVE lost in translation signs as travellers, there are many to choose from here and number 5 was my favourite although I also try hard to stop the kids from performing too many dangerous stunner stunts!
Have a happy and safe Christmas wherever you are and we hope our paths cross in 2010. We just signed on here til June 2011 so catch us while you can.
Here is stage one of our 6th Halloween…the first one being in Denver in 2004 and every one since has been here at SAS. Tomorrow night will be stage two, the trick or treating!
Following will be some albums from our time in Australia during the recent Chinese National Day holiday.
We went back home for my 20 year high school reunion…yes, I know, you all thought I was much younger! As usual we tried to pack too much in but luckily we were able to catch up with many good friends and most of our family.
The first album is of time with my brother and his family for his birthday and later at the airport before Hannah and I flew home. Great to see you Scotty, Chandrima, Jayana, Kane and Dad. It was so so cool seeing the little ones hanging out in the street together. We certainly have some gorgeous kids in our lives.
The second album is of time spent with Simon’s sister Moira and her family. Hannah and I were lucky enough to have another play day in Ballarat with Lily and Jackie which was great fun. Thanks again for the fairies tickets Auntie Moira. It is always so lovely seeing our girls get together, of course the computer just isn’t the same as the real thing but we hope you enjoy looking back over these photos.
Well as always it was amazing to catch up with Miranda, Andrew, Bryony, Hunter, Alby and also the big girls and their babies on our trip this October. So check out these photos and see if you can spot the Aussie creatures and amazing nature…we’ve got chooks, echidnas, kangaroos in the back paddock and check out that rainbow! I also love love love seeing the accident waiting to happen on the trampoline, poor Han and Hunter…a little to the left or right and it could have been avoided…but til then a fun time was being had by all. Thanks again for the memories Donald Family, you never fail to make us miss home.
I can’t stop looking at the photos in this next album. Hannah and I were lucky enough to fly to Tasmania for one beautiful day to see my mum and family. The weather was absolutely magnificent and I fell in love with Tassie all over again. Hobart really is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen, the sky was so blue, the mountain was magnificent towering over Nanna’s place and Hannah and I had a really great time with our family. Thanks mum for taking so many amazing photos of the girls, it was difficult to limit the album size, each shot up at the park was a winner. To think that you have that on your doorstep is incredible…it feels a long long way from Shanghai.
We also had a great time catching up with other friends while we were back and while I didn’t take a lot of photos with them, here are a few from our time with the Rampling Family and also Ruth, Malcolm, Rosie and Annabelle Myers. Thanks for dressing me for the reunion Susan and thanks for adding another couple of kilos to my luggage with all the chocolate Ruth! xxx
As I mentioned, it was for my 20 year reunion that I was back in Australia so following are some photos from that. Thanks to my star photographer Laurelle, I featured in many…I have also culled many! Some were quite shocking to say the least and if Peta Jolley crossed her eyes in anymore photos I would not have had any left!!! It was so cool seeing so many people that I hadn’t seen for so long and others that I always try and catch up with when we are back. The night went too fast and there were people I wanted to talk to and didn’t but hey, there’s always the 30 year Sacred Heart College reunion…
