Friday, May 28, 2010

New Pyjamas and Random thoughts...





Winter is here and with the cold weather and Pyjama day at school... Nina, Wilson and I figured that was a good excuse for new Pj's.... We snuggled up last night for some pics...

It was so fun walking the kids to school this morning in their pyjamas, slippers and dressing gowns... better still was seeing all the teachers dressed in their night gear also.

When my big boys were little, I would dress them ready for bed, in the clothes they were going to wear the next day. I think they got their first pair of proper pyjamas when Nina was born. I figured my system was working well and by the time Nina was born, they could dress themselves... Nina and Wilson are 'spoilt' as Ethan and Angus suggest... I guess it does not take much when you consider new pyjamas a treat!

Makes me think about how differently I do things with my little kids... It has taken me four children, but I think I have reached my peak (exciting for me, but not necessarily a point of reference for anyone else)... I tell my big kids to enjoy the way I parent because it is not going to get any better from here on...

Ethan works at Dominos pizza in town, often his shifts are only two or three hours long and often I am late to pick him up... he said to me the other night when I was twenty minutes late...'I just don't get it, how can you just forget you have four kids? How can you not realise I am missing?!'...

I don't really forget.... and I always remember how cool my kids are to me.... sorry Ethan.
x


Totally different topic... but I just want to show you what I look at everyday... This view is good for the soul! Queenslander at heart... but come on, you have to love this place!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Kuala Lumpur and Germany 2010

Life does not always turn out the way you want it. I thought that I was going to spend my twenty somethings travelling the world and having one adventure after another.... well I have had one adventure after another, just with nappies and school lunches.
Last week I had the opportunity to go and hang out with a friend in Europe. She was born there and had not been back for many years, so the trip was one down memory lane for her. My trip however, started in Kuala Lumpur with my stopover....



I felt so excited to be adventuring alone in an unknown place... I thought about staying at some backpacker place in China town but then decided on something a little more comfortable. After the train, a walk to the monorail and getting off at the wrong stop, walking in the stinking hot humid weather to who knows where... I decided that maybe it was not all that exciting and was instantly glad for the five star accommodation that I had booked over the internet some weeks prior!!



The two days in KL were spent visiting some tourist spots and doing a little shopping.



I really love the Malaysian hospitality and food... oh my heck! The hotel was amazing and kinda made me not want to go out and do anything else.

Almost three days later I arrived in Frankfurt airport. I had a few hours to wait until my friends flight arrived, I checked out the shops (tried to buy a magazine with Malaysian ringot) and enjoyed the uniquness of the airport. Check out the smoking rooms....



The staff working there rode bikes to get around from one side of the place to another, there were designated smoking rooms for smokers. I sat and waited for Debbie and Jocelyn. The highlight was the man at customer service who was so obviously annoyed at having to provide any service and sitting next to an African American lady and her daughter and listen to the lingo they spoke together.

Well the different lingo was one of the funniest things on the trip, my individual Aussie talk could be considered a little offensive to my American buddies. I ensured my traveling companions that my terms were all meant in an endearing way but they still provided a few laughs on the trip.

We met up with Jocelyns super cool friend Jeanette and spent our first night with her family the Gills in Darmshdart.



The Gills have lived all over the world, Jeanette American and James Brittish, they are however, Aussies at heart, so I felt very welcome and can not wait for them to visit Tassie in a few years when they come back to live in Sydney.

The warm welcome was also wonderful at Debbies best friend Krisits' home on an army base somewhere.... (I don't remember where they lived).



Kristi and her mum Vicky where the highlight of the house, Vickys honesty about hot Italian men cracked me up and kept me laughing to myself about her humor for the whole trip. I would love to holiday with her!! Kristi has been friends with Debbie forever and it was so great of her to let me stay in her home. Vicky and Kristi also hosted a visit the best shoe shop in the town of Heidelberg... Josef Seibel.... I promptly purchased two pairs of shoes and to be honest would have spent more time there had my companions been shoesy kinda girls. Kristi admitted to me latter in the trip that she had gone back to purchase more shoes herself that day... some too small but she just had to have them... (I get that!).



The shoes pailed in comparsion to the beauty of the town, the Heidelberg castle, the cobbled streets the great food, amazing views everywhere you looked.

The day prior we took pics of one of the funnier places we visited right next to the Rhine river... the cement works in Mainze.



All roads lead here as we found out, taking the '9' did no good. Perhaps if someone else had been driving we would have ended up somewhere else, but the driver has the 'power'. That someplace else we were looking for was the City of Kolne.

The City of Kolne was a few hours north along the Rhine River. When we finally found where we should be going we took in the breathtaking views along the waters edge. A few pit stops along the way for pics, including this motorbike and this gorgeous German man who did not mind jumping in the pic.



The Cologne cathederal was amazing!!


This day was Jocelyn and Debs finest day for laughs, oh my heck! I was sure at the KL airport last night (on my way home) I could still hear them laughing. Such fun travel companions.

Another night at Kristis house and then south We arrived in Füssen, Ostallgäu, Bavaria late in the afternoon,



now equipped with a GPS we found some authentic looking accomodation with views out to the alpes.



It was unfortunate that the host of the B&B was a little less authentic her name was Suzanne and she was from Georgia... Jocelyn managed to find the kindred spirit in Suzanne (whom we fondly nicknamed Gretel) and the stay was wonderful. A breakfast of brioche, pastries, meat, cheese, jam from the black forest and cereal. Would have liked to stay another night.

Neuschwanstein castle. Horse and carriage to the top...








So many more pics.... but another day.... that is enough procrastination for one day...I have an essay to write!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Never thought you would turn out like your mother???

Last night, my third night home from my Germany trip... I realised that there was really no food in the house. The kids had tuckshop for lunch, meat pie and strawberry milk and I had eaten a packet of gingernut biscuits from food storage in their entirety for the day.... I thought I better get some groceries... I came home from the supermarket with two hundred dollars worth of food and nothing for dinner.... what is with that??

I did however have some fish fingers... I think they snuck into my trolley because I do not remember putting them in there... maybe I did it unconsciously.... fish fingers are soooooo not good for you, but nevertheless there they were... I remember as a kid my mother was not all that up with her cooking... we kinda lived on steak, sausages and fish fingers with vegies... turns out I am becoming more and more like my mother every day... Fish fingers it was for dinner.... I do recall when shopping that I made a conscious choice to not put the oven ready fries in the trolley so perhaps that was from my mothers teaching also?? Who knows... maybe one day I will be calling my kids to tell them what the chickens are doing... (My mother does this and I really kinda find it amusing and think i probably will be like this).


My kids have very specific ideas about what they want from life. Angus recently commented that I do not spend as much time in the kitchen as his friends parents... I said that maybe his friends parents were older than I was and did not have young children to take care of... he dismissed this idea and informed me that he was going to choose a wife carefully and make sure she was happy to cook afternoon teas and nice dinners.... turns out I have made some impact on his life!! The irony of it is, he will probably marry someone just like his me!!