England Day 37

I thought I would make a note of our time in England which is as important if not more so than our forays into Europe. Life at home with my Mum and PoppaD is just great. Their house is lovely and really well equipped for the boys - bikes and paddling pools, basket ball hoops and toys galore. So the boys are settled here and recognise it as home at least for the time being - this is important as although we have only been away for 37 days it feels like a lifetime. Four countries, currencies, time zones, languages, hotels, maps, food etc I sometimes do not know which way is up!

Most of the time we are recovering from our travels so stay quietly at home with a daily walk to Roundhay park and the kids play ground, or tropical world to see the fish and lemurs, or up to the shops for a bit of retail therapy with our pocket money! We have done a few sight seeing trips. Once to York to visit York Minster - there was a fabulous kid's trail around the cathedral that Zac, Mum and I enjoyed. Yesterday we went to Skipton castle where we looked into cold damp dungeons and considered sending Zac up the chimneys with a brush to earn his living! Martin, PoppaD and I have been to see Fahrenheit 9/11 which I would highly recommend.

The boys are coping fantastically. Maxi is doing really well, he is young enough to live completely in the present and just takes life as it comes. I have managed to find a creche for him here in Leeds so he has contact with other little people and lots of new toys - he told me the was "really lucky!" He is going there for three hours a week - when we are in the country on a Wednesday (so that is about three times!) He is talking heaps and heaps and has a huge vocabulary. His pronunciation is hilarious particular for hard words like caterpillar and semolina. He is missing his NZ creche and talks daily of Callum McKenzie, his best mate there.

Zac is good too and recognises that he would rather be away with us than back home at school! However we do have a few fights and I can't tell whether it is him growing/not eating(as usual)/testosterone surges/ boredom or whether he is just plain homesick. I know he misses having his friends his own age to talk to and play with. Maxi walks up to kids and says "hello me Maxi" and that is usually enough for them to start playing. It is harder when you are 7 to do that. We have put Zac is a summer swim programme for an hour a week but he has yet to make friends. Instead he now tortures maxi on a regular basis and they have to be separated when to going gets too tough. Hopefully Turkey next week with the cousins (Josie age 5 and Kimi 2 1/2) will provide some distractions.

Martin is getting some work done - it is a struggle for me to get on the computer as he takes precedence all the time. He has just had a paper accepted in a journal and has met with his old PhD supervisor in Sheffield. As for me I am enjoying being with my Mum and being in England in the summer (which believe me is not that warm) and coping (not always successfully) with the demands of being a full-time Mum. So I am off to do some more washing and more packing ready for our trip on Monday.

Love to you all xxx

Prague Day 35

Well I had thought the architecture in Dublin was worth a look, but Prague completely blew my mind. What a stunningly beautiful city. Building upon building of beautifully carved and crafted stonework, endless cobbled streets, 10th and 12th century churches at every corner, the lazy Vlatva river winding its way through the city with decorated with bridges studded with statues and monuments, and Prague castle looking down serenely on it all. Just fabulous.

Martin and I alone in a city on honeymoon - how terribly romantic! We wined and dined in style in cobbled courtyards and squares taking life very slowly whilst swigging Czech beer and taking the odd photo. Martin to date has had an eating experience in each destination - tofu in Hong Kong, potatoes in Dublin and here in Prague it was smazene syr - or fried cheese. This comes in many guises - deep fried bread crumbed brie or edam or sometimes just unidentified cheese. He had this religiously twice a day for the entire 5 days - a record I think! One happy man though...

When not eating we wandered around the city being the tourists that we are. We walked for miles, listened to a Dvorak piano duet played by two sisters in the town hall on Wencelas square, went to museums, parks and millions of churches (I am sure I was having a spiritual moment or two). We visited the most disturbing modern art gallery I have ever been in - in fact I had to leave as I was so overwhelmed - it was like seeing Edward Munch's The Scream in hundreds of different forms on every wall - bizarre - does this reflect the czech psyche I wonder? Surely not as the people we met were great and the young women beautiful - the receptionist in our hotel especially, who Martin positively drooled over and wanted me to take a picture of her (a souvenir perhaps?)

Martin has been a fan of all things Czech for as long as I can remember and has visited here in the past so he acted as guide, informant and interpreter. We did spend a long time searching for (non-existant) Skoda hats so he could proclaim his fervour to the world! (In fact in the UK Skodas have printed on the back of the car - "It's a Skoda, honest!") Martin assured me that the word for please was "prosseme" (my spelling) and thank you was "auchst bleef" (my spelling - pronounced kind of like roast beef). So we were merrily becoming bilingual until I realised that no-one was responding to Martin's auchst bleefs at all. I finally plucked up the courage to ask the beautiful receptionist (yes while Martin drooled behind me) and she told us that please was indeed "prosseme" and that thank you was "de-kew-yay". Oops Martin had been speaking dutch all along - no wonder no-one understood him!

So that was Prague. It was lovely being without the children but we missed them both terribly and were keen to get home - strange really...

Dublin Day 26

Spending a week in Ireland with Jill, Dave and Pia.

They say if you can see the Dublin hills it's going to rain and if you can't, it's raining already, well for the first two days we couldn't see anything except rain. We took refuge in the Guinness brewery where Zac and Max tried their first pints, Zac said he liked the black part at the bottom but not the white frothy bit. Gin reckons Guinness tastes better here than anywhere else, and so it should.



People here are never short of words, it seems to take three times as many words as necessary to say anything, we find ourselves constantly editing things. Here are some directions we received with the translation.

"Now, some people might tell you to go right at the next set of lights but what you actually want to do is go through that set of lights and then carry on going to the next set and that's where you will be turning right."

means

"Turn right at the second set of lights."



We spent a day as Vikings on a tour of the city, Gin and Jill got to wear horned helmets. We spent an afternoon at the Irish museum of modern art. The highlights were a complete city somebody had made from property press cuttings and a corridor full of neatly piled strips of rice illuminated from below by neon lights... Fantastic.



I managed to eat a meal entirely composed of potatoes and Maxi fell in love with Pia.



Next we're off to Prague without our children....

England Day 18

England at last. Lovely to see Mum and PoppaD. Jet lag crippling - up at 2am with Max ("Me finished sleeping now Mummy"), Zac a bit better, up at 4am. Half a day and one night at home then off to Gloucester for Friday night in hotel so as to be fresh for Simon (my cousin) and Kim's wedding on Saturday.

Lovely service in a tiny beautiful old church - not that I heard that much as I was banished outside with Maxi who was being his usual noisy self and kept asking at the top of his voice "What ARE they doing?" and "Why are they getting married?" Dramatic thunderstorm as the happy couple left the church, complete with thunder and lightening and torrential rain meant the photos had to be taken back at the hotel but it didn't spoil the mood.

It was a fantastic opportunity to see all the family in one go. Fabulous do as expected, beautiful bride, tearful speeches and partying hard until the early hours.

Off to family church in Hereford on Sunday morning to visit 13th century Sollershope church my Grannies grave (an annual event since childhood and a 'must do' when I am home. Lunch at the Green Man pub (family tradition again) then the long (5 hour) drive back to Leeds.

Now just hanging around at home until Dublin on Thursday. xxx

Macau Day 13

Off to Macau for two days to stay in a bank apartment courtesy of Michael. Macau is a gambling town and has a sky tower just like Auckland so we feel right at home. The apartment has a waterfront view which is spectacular. Like Hong Kong, Macau has been handed back to China but obviously has a completely different history. Zac had a challenge to 'spot the difference' between Macau and Hong Kong. Each difference won him a new letter of the aphabet. He was soon up to Z, spotting telephone boxes, police uniforms, portuguese language, number plates and other observations.


I loved Macau, it seemed somehow more real than the vacuumed packed Hong Kong. Life is lived much more out of doors whereas it seems possible to live completely in air conditioned splendour in Hong Kong, ignoring the external environment. The streets of Macau are full of antique furniture shops, old Chinese herb stores and small cottage industries selling delicious warm almond biscuits. The museum is great and gives a fantastic insight into everyday life in Macau. People in Macau just seemed happier.


Reflections from Hong Kong.

Avoiding germs at all cost, after SARS people have become paranoid about cleaning everything.

A sense of perpetually riding on escalators and going in lifts. Max is now escalator aware and has to be carefully watched as he seems hypnotically drawn to the nearest escalator. Zac has developed a complex set of escalator rituals involving special foot and hand placements and movements to be performed before getting on and off. He is now trying to pass this arcane lore onto us.

The need to shop at all possible opportunities, even when it really pisses martin off.

Martin has been investigating the many different faces of Tofu including Boiled Tofu, Fried Tofu, Dried Tofu, Hard Tofu, SOft Tofu, Stuffed Tofu, Tofu Jelly and, believe it or not, Tofu Ice Cream... Hmmmm delicious.


We can now all say 'mmm goy' (thank you) and 'kang ting pong doh' (our address), not so useful for the rest of our travels.

OK, now it's off to Manchester via Munich. It will be sad to leave, Mike and Kat have looked after us well and it's been great to meet Jack but I am looking forward to seeing my mum.


Bye for now

XXXXX

Hong Kong Day 9

Hong Kong is great - fabulous food, architecture and lots of things to do. We have been to a Hong Kong history museum, a teddy bear kingdom (which the kids loved and the adults hated!) an outside light show with fireworks so enhanced by air pollution to be spectacularly beautiful. We went on a bus trip to see the Big Buddha but got on the wrong bus and went in completely the wrong direction back to where we had started!

The Buddha, when we finally arrived was fantastic. An exceptionally clear day with a blue sky framed it perfectly. The neighbouring monastery provided exotic beauty and yummy vegetarian food.

We have been back on the bank junk boat - which is more like a floating gin palace complete with uniformed attendants who drive the speed boat for water skiing, mind the children while we swim and ply us (me actually) with endless beers - my idea of heaven! Martin is now a competent water skiier but lacks a certain flair (remarkably similar to his snow skiing!)

The kids are being great and coping marvellously with everything. Home life is a bit strange. Kat and Michael only lived in this apartment for a couple of weeks before we arrived and it is immaculate. Kat is obsessively tidy and we have to keep everything and everyone pristinely clean (including Maxi's nose which is doing its usual impersonation of a waterfall). Kat's concerns also means that we are not allowed to cook at home(distinctly too messy). Breakfast is barely tolerated but managed. All other meals have to be eaten out. We are getting used to this and go out early in the morning and arrive home late in time for bath and bed.

The shopping is great and we are really noticing the strong NZ dollar, so off today to buy kids clothes, a watch for Martin (his old one fell off while water skiing) and sun glasses for me (also lost when I fell in the water trying to ski!)

Love to you all. xxx