Where have we been??

We have been away for a while...R's dad had a stroke so we have been back to Tasmania for the last 3 weeks. R's sister rang at 2am on Sunday 7 Jan and after a short period of prevarication we managed to book flights and be on a plane out of Heathrow by midday. This now holds the record for our shortest preparation for an international flight! The trickiest bit turned to be getting to Heathrow - we drove down and left the car in the long term car park (Purple Parking - they were really good and we paid for them to wash the car while we were away). It was touch and go for a while though as there was very little petrol in the car and the nearest open service station was down near Stansted. Huge check in and security queues of course!

The only 4 seats we could get together were right down the back by the toilets, which we were a bit worried about, but it turned out to be really good as there are only the 4 centre seats with a little bit of standing room either side so the kids could get up and stretch their legs. Went via Hong Kong and M was upgraded to Business Class for the leg from Hong Kong to Melbourne. Looking at her wreck of a husband she ceded to him and the kids and she felt very very virtuous while Daddy slept off some of his anxiety in luxury. Now he sees the point - pity we cant afford it and academics have to travel economy as a matter of policy - almost enough to make you get a real job.


So kids had a sort of good time in Tasmania, they got to see their grandparents. Made many trips to the hospital and gladly informed all who asked that Grandad was getting better thankyou. Went to the beach in between times. J's Grandpa made him a sword (yes thats right, see the picture for full impact, made of huge piece of steel). Saving grace is its so heavy that it tires him out quickly. Its oiled and wrapped and stored at Grandpas!! Didnt really fancy bringing it back through security (cant imagine why). Little M had a birthday party with her cousins which was lovely. Big M went to Canberra for a few days at the end, which was hot. We all got suntanned a bit (look very European now) but not sunburnt as we managed last year thankfully. So now we are back, exhausted and poor, on with life. R is intending to go back to Tas to see his Dad in May if circumstances permit.

Happy New Year!

We made it through another whole year! And we even went out for New Year's eve this year. The local pub closed for a private party which had a kids room and bands and we all went along for some drinks and chat with local friends. It was nice to go out for NY as we havent done so for a while. Little M crashed at about 10, but J made it through to 1 am watching 007 with his dad!
Not much going on here as winter shut down sets in. We went to the pantomime on Sat which was a blast, very silly. The main cast have stayed the same over the past 3 years and they do a good line in slapstick comedy - buckets of water etc etc, the political satire is a little lame but my dad would love the puns = ie they are truly awful. Theatre season is great here - the Mikado is on soon from the local G&S society so we will probably try and see that one. Other than that highlights have been J being able to walk to Granchester again without completely collapsing from foot pain, another expensive visit to the dentist by big M. Apparently my teeth (which are just like everyone elses teeth) need extra care as perhaps the reason my siblings have few fillings and I have lots is due not to childhood eating and brushing habits (which were the same) but due to differences in mouth flora. Basically I got really sick of being told by dentists that its all my fault and clearly I didnt brush my teeth - when I am a stickler and R is hopeless and NEVER has a filling. So being the annoying academic that I am we managed to agree that averages are part of a distribution and that not everyone would end up with the same outcome from exactly the same care regime cos there are actually differences in people's saliva etc (so R now loves to tell people to watch out for my acid spit). Now I am much happier because we have worked out a few things that are good for me to do so that there will be no more decay work, only restoration work of the already mountainous set of fillings. (For those of you with unhealthy interest in dental care this means brushing with water as soon as I get up, brushing as soon as possible after meals, a special 'clinging' mouthwash for overnight). Oh another piece of invaluable advice for all chocoholics..... if you MUST eat 10 squares of chocolate eat them all at once, not one piece an hour as then the bacteria only get one go! Best excuse I have heard! And in case you are wondering the bill is $A210 for the check up and then $A1250 for the 3 fillings - feeling better about your healthcare costs now??

Xmas 2006

Christmas was not that cold, and definitely not white. J and M had chosen the most ENORMOUS chicken which we had late afternoon, highlight according to J is the orange drizzle cake with icecream AND custard all at once!! Note the great Christmas tree, which had the right shape! Big and little Ms had an epic adventure getting it in the car, it only just fit, and little M had a serious encounter with the mud we were parked in. Goodness knows how we will get it to the disposal point! But it looks great, and takes up most of the lounge room.

Kids maxed out on playmobil for gifts which has the advantage of many small packages. Went to some neighbours for Xmas eve, another neighbours for morning champagne and nibbles, then lunch with a friend at our place, little M did a spot of rollerskating and that was it. Very relaxing! Could have been warmer to be in Oz!!
Merry Christmas to you all.

And it was good!!

So as intimated below R after a certain amount of pressure succumbed to booking the birthday party of a lifetime for me. Happy camper, better than the last 2 years which have been respectively spent being violently ill (gift was R taking kids out for the day so I could be violently ill in peace) and at the School winter fete. Life doesnt get much more exciting than that!! So Marrakesh a great improvement. Sadly it was cold, but everything else was great. Kids had a fabulous time, we had a fabulous time, amazingly R bought not one but two carpets in a fit of something that I am still not sure I understand.


Spices were great, food was great, snake men were not great nor henna women (these are all serious hasslers in the market), little M drove the horse and cart, J swam in the unheated swimming pool (!!) the souks were amazing, a real labyrinth, not for the faint hearted and really only a bargain for those of us beleagured with pounds and english prices. But a great deal of good hearted fun. Bought some unbelievably beautiful pottery - photo soon. And scarves (of course) and spices, and some basic tunics and ..... it was FUN. So R has lots of credits for the next years (or to make up for the last 20 years on which he has forgotten). Highly recommended for a short break - we loved it.

40th Birthday

After a certain amount of pain and suffering (on R's part) we all headed off to Marrakech for big M's 40th. She didnt want to spend it in Cambridge or England and became alarmed (and somewhat violent) by my suggestion that we go to bath...so Marrakech it is. The sales people I booked the Riad (small hotel) through were very helpful and persuasive, so I booked a 4 room riad just for us. Just as well as it turned out later.
Renee came with us and Edda was going to come too, but her advanced stage of pregnancy intervened and she was forced to pull out...
Arrived in the dark and had an exciting taxi ride into the old city...our Riad is in the Medina, so we had to get out and walk a fair way (I had to carry little M who was getting tired, so I got tired too!). Kids had a deal of trouble choosing which of the rooms they were going to stay in, but dad and mum knew straight away which room they were having when they saw it! Some delicate negotiations went on between J and M but a compromise was made and all settled in.

Went out for a wander to the Djemaa el Fna (central square) where we bought jelaba's (see picture) for the kids and the stall holder tried to give them kittens...this plagued us for the whole trip as the kids kept wanting to go and see the kittens and Mum and Dad were forced to fight off the shop owner each time, desperate to sell us something else.

Bling!

Am in sunny (literally) Atlanta. Got upgraded to business class on the way over - YES - am seriously thinking may have to reconsider career choices, its so much more civilized to do long haul business class, you get there feeling almost human. A good thing when trying to negotiate complicated US security. Almost left the laptop behind when they x-rayed it as I LEFT the airport as well (not sure I understand that but thats what happened). Managed to avoid leaving it thankfully. So its the weekend of Thanksgiving sales. Thankfully Fri and Sat are the big days cos I think it might have been very busy. Today was calmer, not so many bargains, but these days I just think being in a country where the clothes are not made for people with average height of 5'2" is a great thing. And of course the US$ just keeps going down, great for the buying of clothes, bad for the $ I am being paid. Just better spend it all and be about even. Mind you spending it all could be hard. Atlanta is definitely SOUTH. I dont think I saw a single piece of clothing today which didnt have gold thread or sequins or glitzy material. We are in the land of the southern Belle people. (Not me, as you can imagine, almost as bad as total pink!). Did manage to buy a couple of things, but not nearly as satisfactory as previous US shopping excursions. I have only been to southern US once before and I forgot they are all absolutely enthralled with my accent. Even more so now that its got a pretty heavy Oxbridge overtone (sorry about that, its not intentional, but I saw a video of me the other day and I do sound like a right twat, hopefully it will wear off quickly when I get back to Oz, but I think I can probably do a very convincing job of correcting DD's enunciation now - family joke) Anyway, the most amazing thing about here is that there are still pretty limited clothes in my size range, there is a dichotomous distribution - the size 2 - 6 range (can you believe they have a size 2? there is even a 0 - these sizes look like something a starving 6 year old should wear, just ghastly) and then there is mega tent size. Now if you buy mega tent size it is almost invariably in black jersey and decorated with sparkly stuff. And if you buy stick size then it will be in satin or some other very impractical fabric. I did not see a single pair of trousers made in a sensible fabric, all either silk or polyester!! But if you wanted to buy a ball gown for your 7 year old (yes really), boy were you in the right place. Amazing. So very educational, if not all that wardrobe enhancing.
Off to work tomorrow.

On the boy!

J's dreams have all come true - the pirate ship from birthday loot has arrived. As you can see its very large, and true to form on modern packaging the box was enormous! Not the most flattering picture of the boy - clearly lining up for a big growth spurt again, as he does, turns into a little hamster then shoots up (as opposed to his parents who just turn into hamsters and forgot to shoot up afterwards). M bought herself a little rowboat from playmobil too - she thinks its fantastic, about ratio of real rowboat to real pirate galleon here so it looks really small and she looks very unmaterialistic compared with this!!! Well, perhaps he will be a hedge fund manager and keep us all in style (and his sister in salmon and blueberries!).

Birthday party at the zoo & Halloween

J decided to have a small birthday event with 2 friends (and 1 of their little brothers who happens to be a friend of little M's) at the local wildlife park. They all had a great day. Two highlights were the otters (J is doing a project for school on otters so he has copious photos of a very talkative otter) and tigers (his friend is doing one on tigers). It was a good fun day, and relatively relaxed for the parents as the kids just played on the equipment, did a tour of the zoo animals and ate sandwiches and cake. No real entertainment had to be laid on, so it was lovely for all. Little M has decided she would like a zoo party too - she wants particularly to see Pandas - problem is the closest ones are in Germany!!! Hmm, R looked it up and discovered we could go there for 5 pounds each way in February, but I then reminded him Berlin in February may not be very attractive! We are hoping elephants might be a good alternative!!

Halloween this week, quite big in our area. J went as Cap'n Jack Sparrow (of course) and M as a cat. They got HUGE amount of loot, and it cost their parents a HUGE amount in doling it out to trick and treaters (it seems like our street is the 'safe one' for little kids in Cambridge so there were literally hundreds of the 4-10 year old age group in the street).Not much going on this weekend, massive cleaning of house parents are exhausted.

Pisa and the beach

Bet you didnt know there was a beach at Pisa - neither did we until someone mentioned they had been there and it was great! First we went to Pisa itself, the leaning tower really is something to see, and just for extra credit they have some other wonderful buildings in the complex - the cathedral and bapistry. Beautiful marble buildings - we paid to go in the duomo (cathedral) which had magnificent decorations. Little M declared it the highlight of the whole trip - pretty impressive when competing with the beach for a 6 year old. She was very taken with the tower, really really really wanted to climb it, most dashed when parents wouldnt part with the cash or queue! She is now proud owner of piece of tourist paraphenalia showing the complex and has practiced her show and tell on us many times. Had to agree given I had let J buy a model of Eiffel Tower in Paris!! At least they are cheap - and treasured!
The on to the beach!! Great beach, especially if you ignore the hideous overdevelopment ON the beach, and I do mean ON it. Gold Coast has nothing on this. Strange experience because it was out of season (why we cuold afford it)- so no pool etc - and nobody there but its obviously super busy in season, be absolutely hideous - if you want to see it in its full glory try the following http://anteprima.grapho.it/default_intro2.asp, we were staying in the concrete tower!! Anyway room was all very civilized and we thoroughly checked out the local restaurants - now even more thoroughly sick of delicious pizza than before!! We have come back to have some non-Italian food.

J had a ball for his birthday at the beach, we reckon he spent about 6-7 hours on the beach, swimming, sandcastle building, more swimming and wave jumping. Bliss! He is in no doubt that the beach was the highlight of the trip and can we come again really soon. Happy boy. Parents slobbed around, tried to walk up beach but constantly thwarted by children who plunged into the sea as soon as we went anywhere near the beach. Lots of books read, so quite pleasant - tho I am reading 'Grapes of Wrath' and R drew the line at that, had to buy a new book he was so desperate. Back to extremely busy work, and on to the next trip - M goes to Atlanta at the end of November.

Junketing

J and R's birthdays have been celebrated in style...big M had a conference in Firenze so we spent R's birthday there and then headed down to the beach at Tirrenia near Pisa for J's birthday. An early start to get to Stansted, as usual then huge queues to check in and get through security. Got to the gate with plenty of time, then they changed the gate on us, so traipse off to the new gate. Then just before the boarding time they changed it again, so stampede down to the new gate. With no seat allocations everyone wants to be first on, so it is very hard for the priority boarding people (small people, elderly or disabled) to force throught the press to the gate to get on first. The airline staff kept ordering people away from the gate - quite funny to watch.
We decided to catch a train to Firenze from Pisa - there is a station in the airport so it is pretty easy - so bought tickets and rushed to the platform...our train was standing there already and the clock showed it was leaving immediately so we ran with luggage and kids and threw ourselves in to the first empty compartment. After a while it became apparent that the clocks were in fact showing the departure time rather than the current time and we had quite a wait! The hotel was only 200m from the station at the other end, very convenient and extremely luxurious. M was promoted to Professor by the hotel, but she didnt complain.
While M was conferencing on Friday I took the kids down to the river and the Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in the city as all the others were blown up in WW2. It is covered in jewellers shops which little M thought was wonderful. We went to il Giardino di Boboli behind the Pallazo Pitti for the afternoon, lots of space and statues, then headed back to the hotel -not soon enough to avoid torrential downpours which continued for the next 2 days!
We went to dinner with all the conference people on Friday night which was not so successful...J fell asleep before the food arrived. Little M had quite a good time playing with wax off the candles and the wife of the organiser thought she was very sweet (as she said, she was 'waiting for grandchildren').
On Saturday we walked over to the Duomo (cathedral) and climbed the campanile - again in pouring rain and then hung about in the hotel room. Little M and R were both a bit second hand, both had bad head colds since the flight over.
Sunday we headed off for the train to Pisa, well worth the effort. Stuck the luggage in the left luggage at the station and walke over the river to see the leaning tower. Little M was really excited by it. We went and looked around in the duomo before collecting luggage and getting a taxi to Tirrenia on the beach.

Rodeo Stars

M took the kids to a puppet show at the junction Saturday morning - a german puppeteer living in England performing an aboriginal story. They saw the story of Tiddalick the frog that drank all the water in the world. Little M crashed her bike on the way over, it is too small for her, so we went to look at bikes for J - they had agreed that Little M would have his bike and he would get a bigger second hand bike. Decided instead to do up one of the wrecks in the garden so purchased new seat, hand grips, bell, brake pads, lights, tyres and inner tubes and spent pleasand hour or two fixing up the old bike. Sadly it is still cheaper to buy a new bike than fix an old one, but he now has a bike with 24inch wheels instead of 20inch wheels. They both look so grown up!

In the late afternoon we went to the Red Bull - they were celebrating 1 year under new management with hog roast, bouncy castle AND bucking bull ride. No pictures yet (havent worked out how to load them from the phone) but only 1pound a go so both kids had a turn. Little M very stylish in her miniskirt. We think she most enjoyed the way her hair swished over her face as the bull went round. J also enjoyed it enormously.

Sunday was big birthday party for Finn and Darragh so R took J to that and then took little M to the Clare Hall pool, then over to visit Naama, Alon and Michal until the party finished (Naama's big brother was their too). Alon and R had fun adjusting one of Alons old bikes for Orie.

A very Cambridge weekend!

Nine Wells Nature Reserve

This reserve used to be the water supply for Cambridge. There are springs here that were diverted to flush out a defensive ditch around the town then later used to supply water. Apparently these chalk springs are now quite rare due to water extraction for agriculture. They used to have some rare and unique invertebrates, but they all died in the last drought. Oh well! Special activity day to celebrate completion of new bike path to the Shelfords - story teller, kids singing, making stick animals, toasting marshmallows. We rode our bikes over, probably the longest ride little M has done so far.

Roma

R headed off to Roma for a few days with a friend of ours from Melbourne (due a break after a big trip by M to Australia and numerous 2-3 night jaunts around the UK). Spent 2 days in Roma and then down to Pompei. As you might expect our accomodations was luxurious...thankfully it was ok on the inside!
This has got to be the smallest car I have ever seen...it was only just longer than the scooters and only a little bit wider!
On our first day we went to the vatican...the queues for St Peters were filling the piazza out the front so we went round to the Vatican Museums and only queued for an hour! It is an amazing place, I especially liked the map room which was decorated with maps of italy like this one. The sistine chapel was ok too, although we almost died of the heat and crowds getting there - there is a one way system and lots of narrow passages and crowded rooms.

After the museums we went round to St Peters and only had to queue with a thousand or so people. Had a look at all the dead popes in the basement and round the inside of the cathedral. It is quite different to the cathedrals here and in France that we have looked at, massive square columns.
Second day was spent wandering round the roman ruins in the forum and the colosseum. Saw the Tarpeian rock where traitors where thrown to their deaths and the Tullianum where Vercingetorix was executed and thrown down into the Cloaca Maxima (although St Peter and St Paul were incarcerated there as well so it is a full on shrine).
The colosseum is an amazing building, especially considering a large part has been torn down. I was surprised how small the arena is - I doubt you could hold a cricket or football match there.
We wound up at the Scala Sancta which are supposed to be the steps up which Jesus was dragged to see Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem. You are supposed to ascend the steps on your knees, praying at each step, so of course as soon as he saw them michael said 'lets do it'. It is painful. You cant pass the people in front who are praying on each step so it takes a long time. When you get near the top you get photographed by groups of tourists who have walked up the steps you didnt see which go up the side behind a wall. This is Michael pretending it doesnt hurt and trying to make up his mind to miss a step.

Next day was spent on the train to Napoli and Pompei. We only had a couple of hours in Napoli and didnt find the nice bits, it was a bit too industrial for us, so we hopped on the circumvesuviana train to pompei asap. The ruins are right next to the station and we only had to walk 200m from our hotel in the morning.
We decided that although the Romans are famed for their roads and engineering skills, there wasnt so much evidence of it here...the road surface was horribly rutted and uneven, and it has only been there for 2000 years! I am looking forard to going back to Roma and Pompei with J - his class are studying Celts and Romans this year so quite topical.

Sunflowers

Little M has been growing a sunflower from seed for her Rainbows group (baby guides)...finally after months of neglect it has flowered. Many of you will have (unkowingly) sponsored this plant by the centimetre - it was a fund raising event. This one is the second one, the first one lost its growing tip to big brother J - he tried to tell little M that it would still grow and flower anyway.

The cat is our lodger...she thinks she lives here. J and M are ecstatic, they want a kitten and this almost as good. She sleeps on J's bed until we chuck here out in the evenings.

Summer in Cambridge

Thought you might like some pictures of end of summer swimming in the Cam - not quite the spot Lord Byron used to swim (a bit further up river) but close!! J had been fishing - something he is very keen on currently - and they decided to go in. Cold, but that doesnt stop the kids.

I Dolomiti

Headed off to Italy (as you do) to meet up with the Portmen for a week in the Dolomites. Flew from Stansted...flight was at 6:30am, so we arrived at airport about 4:25am and only just made the flight (there was no one waiting to board at the gate - they were already on the plane). Ah the joy of the new security arrangements! Once we managed to get the hire car out of the car park and onto the correct side of the road quite a pleasant drive up into the mountains - a stunning collection of viaducts, tunnels, steep gorges and rivers and HUGE mountains. We were booked in to a chalet in Arabba, which no one seems to have ever heard of, but is a little village in the Livinalonga valley and very pretty. The Portmen beat us in by a few hours - they had been in Venice for a few days. The hire cars looked very fancy, we had an Alfa and they had a Peugeot 407. Unfortunately the climate control on ours wasnt working, so it was windows down in the hot weather (a bit more problematic on cold mornings which were below zero).

Our accomodation was the top 2 appartments in a 3 storey house thing. We had the top one with a great kids room at the top - headroom of about 4 feet, so perfect for small people N&J&M spent most of their time up there playing when we were in the appartments. They also spent some time watching cartoons in Italian. Apparently it doesnt matter what language they are in (although you still have to have the sound as loud as possible).

We went with Colletts Mountain Holidays which gave us the option of joining organised activities each day if we wanted, so we decided to try their basic via ferrata on the Monday - with children.
Drove to the Passo Gardena above Corvara and all died walking up the hill. Kids did really well - climbed 100m or so up a broken gully to the start of the ladders and cables of the Via Ferrata, but decided they didnt want to go any further so big MP&M&R took them down to the easy track below the gully and M took them down and back to Arabba. JP had continued on the VF and MP&R quickly realised they had no food - M and JP had it all so we had to hustle to try and catch our lunch (no luck until back at ski lift ristorante). VFs are fun...climbing for the middle aged with children). Via Ferrata are protected routes with cables for clipping to and ladders or stemples on awkward bits. Still quite strenuous and there are plenty of unprotected bits!

Tuesday we did a big walk with the kids on the Viel Del Pan. MP and R did a car shuffle early so we would have a car at the Passo Pourdoi when we finished...the problem with the climate control in our hire car particularly apparent on this very cold (sub zero) morning. Had to drive up to the pass with the windows down. Big, scary cable car ride up the mountain at 8:30am. Saw deer, fox and marmots from the cable car, and lots of marmots everywhere. Great views of the Marmolada (glaciers, cliffs etc). Saw a Lammergeier (maybe) at least a very large bird of prey about wedgetail eagle sized.
Track was quite scary with the kids - steep snow grass drop off for a few thousand feet down in to the valley - but good surface and easy grade. Very tired children at the end but they walked well and had a good time. J especially pleased with seeing his eagle and all like marmots and marmot holes.

Wednesday the kids spent at the playground with M. MP, JP and R went to do a climb (grade IV+) called the "Little Micheluzzi", little being a relative term here as it is 6 pitches and about 240m of climbing. However the freezing cold wind. snow down to about 2000m and lack of thermal on MPs part(s) caused a retreat after a couple of hours of wandering about trying to convince ourselves to pike out. In the evening M & R went for a beautiful stroll up the valley.

Thursday M & R took the kids for a walk above the village through meadows of crocus and classic alpine hay sheds. MP & JP went to do a Via Ferrata (see their description - but they didnt get back till 3:30!).

M & R went for a walk up towards Lago Boe but were beaten by the late hour. Still a very pretty walk and one for the kids next year!

Friday was another perfect day so MP & R went off to do the Little Micheluzzi - confident we would be back for lunch! Got on the climb at about 9:30am...really nice climb, hard bits extremely well led by MP and grovelled up by R. Really LONG descent in the hot sun across very exposed rubble ledges only a few hundred metres above ground. Got to the car at 4pm, drove to nearest ristorante and each drank 1 litre of mineral water straight away. Meanwhile M sensibly set off for walk (part of the Incisa walk) which took here to some relativley deserted and isolated parts of the nearby mountains and lots of alpine pastures and ancient mushroom gatherers. She beat us home by 3 hours. No pictures cause everyone refused to carry the camera. Kids blobbed at home and went to playground for a bit.

Saturday after much dithering we all went to Passo Falzarego to descend from Lagazuoi through the WW1 Italian tunnel system.

Pretty amazing place, kids did really well. (Though highlight for J was definitely the existence of snow at the top of the cable car!) My knees are shattered! Little M got sick of big steps down so started bouncing down the steps. Had best ever pizza at end of day in Arabba - little local restaurant.

Sunday - setting off for Treviso. MP and JP flying out that day, so said goodbyes. We then drove over to see some real dinosaur footprints accessible by a 1 hour walk from the pass. Of course the 1 hour turns out to be the time pre-kids 25 year old pace..... took us about 3 hours return (we are slow middle aged people now apparently). It was probably the hardest walk the kids had to do, with a 300m ascent involved. They thought the footprints were well worth it though - 4 different types of dinosaurs had walked across this huge slab. And it was an adventure to get there!! They then slept in the car all the way through the rest of the windy passes back to the main autostrade (tollway to Venice). Good thing as little M gets a bit carsick! Bit of a drama finding the hotel (as usual when everything is in a foreign language). Found somewhere for dinner - very strange, food was good, alcohol exorbitantly expensive, and not sure it wasnt a front for some other activity!!! Certainly it looked like we were being served by the bouncer - bit Arthur Daly really! Then up early and on the plane back to home and all arrived back safely about 2pm. Kids promptly went and rounded up their friends and went for a swim in the River Cam!!


"THE END - can we come again next year Dad??"