adamsaway

New blog www.localcheeseplease.blogspot.com

2009-08-28T09:29:00.002+12:00

About...you guessed it: cheese-y goodness in all its forms.

www.localcheeseplease.blogspot.com

Meme...my first and last

2009-06-03T17:43:00.005+12:00

What is your current obsession?
Cheese. Mmmmmmmmmm lovely stinky cheese.

What is your weirdest obsession?
Cheese? No, chickens. And ducks. I loves me poultry. Unexpected, but true.

What are you wearing today?
Lovely icebreaker underwear, gap bootcut jeans, green polypro, Rieker boots…studying mother at home wear. *sigh*

What's for dinner?

Home made pumpkin soup, delicious lamb from Waiora Lamb and if I can be bothered, home made pita bread.

What would you eat for your last meal?
Must ditto Miss Martha on this one: Gusto's premium Angus rib-eye w Manchego butter, hand-cut fries & jus followed by one of their cheese plates. Fave treat restaurant – who needs Wellington now? We call it south of Petone now.

What's the last thing you bought?
25kgs of layer pellets…see above.

What are you listening to right now?
Children chirruping outside as they dig up the garden, hum of the fan oven roasting the pumpkin. Oh and cars and trucks.Welcome to the Hutt.

What do you think of the person who tagged you?
Oh, she is a delight. Funny and groovy and design-y (but not in a wanky way), creative and adventurous. V cute family too.

If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?
France, like this.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
Lunch at Madame Murat’s. En famille. Wonderful village restaurant in Pomarede, five generations of women who have run it, five delicious courses, lashings of wine, 12 euro fifty. What more is there to say?

Which language do you want to learn?
Spanish, ‘uno cortado por favor’ will only get me so far

What is your favorite colour?
Green (I know, anyone could have guessed black)

What is your favorite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?
Greying, formerly black lovely cardi with little sparkly bits on it, Saba circa 2003. Sounds dreadful but it is truly lovely, cut, fabric – I have not been able to replace it.

What is your dream job?
Cheesemonger. This week (until I actually give it a go, possibly…) surrounded by chickens cooing softly.

What's your favourite magazine?
Good. Cos it makes one feel so GOOD reading it.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?
School fees. The hazards of entrepreneurship in a recession.

Describe your personal style?
Unadventurous, convenient and comfort – jeans, boots and a range of ageing tops. Scrub up a little better.

What are you going to do after this?

Make said pumpkin soup and be mummyish for at least two more hours.

What are your favourite films?
Recently the Grocer’s Son.

What's your favourite fruit?
Persimmon. Mmmmmmmmm. Perfect with cheese.

What inspires you?
Making what one love into what one does. Still working on it but getting there, bit by bit.

Do you collect anything?
Nothing collectable – paper composts in corners, it seems. Oh, and poultry.

Your favourite books?

Anything by Mo Willems. The man has captured the essence of pigeon and made it entertaining. How likely is that?

What are you currently reading?
The Lieutenant. Struggling with that one. Before that loved the latest Mary Moody book, and before that loved Omnivores Dilemma and In Search of Food.

Go to your book shelf, take down the first book with a red spine you see, turn to page 26 and type out the first line:

Lesson 5: Here together are two of my favourite things – minestrone soup and…

By what criteria do you judge a person?
Warmth and humour. Oh and a positive outlook on life, of “I can do this”.

Where would you go if you had three months and $10,000 to travel, and why?

Southern Spain and France (where I would make my UK and German-based friends meet me…), via New York and LA. Partly because of special to visit people on the way and partly because I just love those particular parts of Europe. And the food, Let’s not beat around the bush.

The rules:
1. Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own.
2. Tag eight other people (or four in this case...). Mikey Mike; Emily; Edith; Tom

How to grow a rooster...

2009-02-22T21:06:00.011+13:00

Well hello there. Anyone who has seen or spoken to me in the last year knows that I have become a bit of a poultry fancier. I don't belong to a CLUB or anything (yet ha ha ha), but I adore my little mottled flock. A year ago we got 4 gorgeous bantams from a woman in Te Horo who has many many many (we're talking 200 here). Since then we've hatched a few little cute chicks from fertilised eggs and 10 days ago a pekin duck. Hmm, maybe time to stop for a while. But anyway, it makes me very happy to have these funny, industrious, productive, protective creatures co-existing with us. Not to mention the eggs!

But I digress. Below are some tips on how to grow a rooster. Zelda the Wonder Chicken/Rooster left us today to go and live on a lovely farm in Feilding, with some nice big chickens to boss around. We live in the 'burbs, see and crowing is not to be done at ungodly hours of the morning. Here's my tribute to our first hatchling. S/he has been a most excellent little backyard guard-chicken/cockerel person.

(Everything else is just fine btw, still coffee-ing, contracting in town a little and raising the wonderfulest little non-feathered people ever, who are growing like mushrooms!).

Ok, now for the tips:

Have your rooster hatch under the funniest, cluckiest, broody bantams: Malc and Bernard:

Give her plenty of stimulating pastimes and people to play with...

...plenty of rest...

...cuddles...And s/hes perfect!

Expansion and other fine bullet-y things

2008-04-10T19:48:00.002+12:00

Well, we're expanding. No, not the family (though it has been so long since last I blogged that we could almost have another child!!). We have bought this:

Not pretty and, it turns out, not quite high enough for Conrad to stand in - but it is a step in the right direction! We will be selling it at the end of the month so we can get a slightly higher vehicle *ahem*. Other cool discoveries this week:

rediscovering e-bay and replacing expensive but disintegrating-from-sun sheers in living room for Ikea sheers on Ebay for an amazing bargain, even with postage (the cost of one panel from Freedom - crazy);
today's discovery that the boring looking fish and chip shop in Alicetown has become the home of chinese dumpling specialists. $5 for 12, made right there, yummy vege ones with lashings of spring onions and little tiny pieces of vermicelli. Mmmm;
our business growing by the day - new regulars and excellent corporate events. Definitely need two setups;
lots of great feedback on our coffee - hurrah. Makes it all worthwhile;
happy shiny children; and
a teensy bit of contract work from home to help pay the bills as we grow our empire.

Glass of wine time. Night : )

Business as usual

2008-03-07T11:38:00.004+13:00

Well you may have noticed I haven't exactly been a prolific blogger of late. I even went to a Wellington bloggers' catchup evening last week and felt like such a fraud! Great to meet some of the folks whose blogs/online journals I've been lurking around for a while - smart people. Not as much variety in our days, I guess - easy when the countries, foods and experiences are changing by the day to think of many bloggable tidbits! But things are going well following reentry.

We have a new Espresso Rescue site for weekday mornings (opposite the fire station in Marsden Street, just by the bridge into Lower Hutt) thanks to the Assembly of God and their nice big car park. It is going well and we have many regulars already, after only 5 days. Our (well, soon-to-be-ours) ambulance is being fixed up ready for a WOF in Rotorua - a 1984 Bedford, which will be most excellent for our vehicle 2.0. Finally a home for our lovely Wega. Then we can be two places at once with ease. At the moment we have several contemporaneous (don't you just LOVE that word?!) events on the weekend, which can be a bit of a challenge and requires much lugging of heavy things. This way we'll have two vehicles from which we can operate inside, no matter what the weather - essential in Wellington.

Conrad and I are taking turns doing morning coffee. Now I have worked out I can bring my laptop and woosh modem for the quiet times it is fantastic - great reception here!

The kids are very happily settled in their new learning environments, and enjoying their old haunts and friends again.

And we have chickens! Four extremely cute and industrious bantams, bought on Trade Me - contact me if you want some - Louise has hundreds. Literally. So Felicity, Snowy, Bernard and Malc (will post pics soon - lost camera in Korea) are happily pecking their way around the perimeter of the garden - great weeders, and there isn't much they can hurt within their reach. They are so cute, putting themselves "to bed" at night up in the grape vines at the top of the glass house. They will start laying in a couple of months, fingers crossed.

Well, stay tuned for the progress of our poor but happy (but with great potential) year, as we build our Espresso Rescue empire to sustain us OUT OF THE OFFICE.

: ) x

Adamsaway out of office reply...

2008-02-20T17:20:00.002+13:00

Kia ora tatou, konichiwa, bonjour, hola. We're back home and, as my friend Mindi said on the weekend, it is all a bit "Good Life". Remember that wonderful show from the 70s? We have sealed it with 4 bantams, newly installed in the glasshouse, who are being very cute.

We have been back almost a month. In some ways it has flown, in other ways it seems like aeons ago that we were transiting in Narita Airport for our final longhaul leg of the trip. AirNZ is fabulous, btw - we have flown many airlines in the last six months and our last flight was the best (barring business class Lufthansa Toronto to Frankfurt of course!).

We eased our way back in with a few days at my brother Russell's, while he was in Australia and our (wonderful) tenants were moving out. We wandered around town in the searing hot sun like new tourists - it was quite an odd feeling. We bought kimchi (which we ate every day in Korea) and rediscovered an excellent flat white -something that we only got close to twice in Europe - Berlin and Rome. Now we've been back in our lovely home for 3 weeks o so. We are still kind of camping, due to a mix up with a friend who by mistake took the children's mattresses and a general reluctance to put our bed up - we are sleeping Korean style!

Only what we immediately need has been unpacked - we just haven't been able to face the rest! The children are delighted with school and kindy.

So we are poor but happy. We are so much richer for our experiences on the trip. The reconnections we made, the new friends we found and the places, food and atmospheres we fell in love with. And it is good to be back, so that is perfect. We are enjoying reconnecting bit by bit with our people here, on many fronts.

Work wise we are Espresso Rescuing - many big events coming up - and looking at how we will expand / extend the business to keep me out of an office as long as possible. And we are being a family, doing quiet things and making hay while the sun shines.

Not much news as such but all is well on the home front.

Bye bye Korea

2008-01-22T12:11:00.000+13:00

What an amazing country, the Republic of Korea. We have been wonderfully hosted by Bernad and Su-Jin (now Mr and Mrs Adams), seen historical sights, eaten lashings of gimchi (sp?) and attended an extraordinary wedding - beautiful.

I can't upload the pics til I am back on my laptop, but may be able to en route in Tokyo. We leave later this morning for a transfer there, then on to NZ overnight. It feels a little odd but we are ready for the return home. What a luxury it will be to really unpack! We are staying at my brother Russell's in Mt Vic for the first few days, while we ease our way back into our place.

What a wonderful whirlwind it has been. Much delicious food (our winter layer now firmly in place - perfect for the summer in NZ!); many lovely people; much kindness and many adventures. 13 countries for me, 12 for the children and Conrad. It has cost us an arm and a leg but this time away has been an excellent investment. We have seen our little people grow and blossom in front of our eyes. They have managed so much travelling, waiting, being patted by strangers, so many temperatures, times zones and beds, with little whining and much gusto. They are well prepared for their forays into school and kindergarten on our return - we have no concerns about that!

Ok - sayonara til Tokyo, and hopefully some pics.

: )

On the home straight...

2008-01-16T11:06:00.000+13:00

It has been nearly a week since my last posting (St Peter's almost made me want to convert...) . Almost all my (meager) online time has been spent trying to get home. Our agent in NZ has been doing battle on our behalf with both Lufthansa and Air NZ to get us back the seats that were cancelled by mistake. We had duplicate seats held by a nice Lufthansa agent in Nuremberg who was trying to help with a flight change (but actually couldn't from her end), which caused a bit of a system problem and our seats to disappear on our (now oversold) flight out of Shanghai. However, we will get home - still to be confirmed whether it will be via Tokyo or Shanghai. Flight Centre has fronted up with tickets Pusan-Tokyo in case we need them, so yay for that.

Anyway...not interesting, but has taken a lot of time and energy to sort out the options across the world and between time zones. Luckily the internet cafes in Rome were excellent, and even smoke free. That has been fantastic these last two weeks - hitting Paris on January 2nd, going to have dinner and realising all of a sudden that NO-ONE was smoking! We didn't have to rush through our dinner as everyone around us lit up as soon as they finished! Yay.

So. we had a lovely 5 days in Rome. We really did and saw a lot. Hen walked around 5 kms most days, fuelled by excellent pizza and gelato. Oh yes, and just a sip of the best coffee in Rome, at St Eustachio Cafe. Soooooooooooooo good, I reckon they may have a secret ingredient.

We saw so many cool things - when I have more time I will add more and links too. Our accommodation was wonderfl. A little out of Rome proper, but so peaceful and lovely friendly people. Self-catering is so much easier with little people too, evening s at home. We were sad to leave.

Yesterday we arrived in Shanghai - all was ok despite no visas, as we have ongoing tickets to Korea (today). We didn't have the time or energy (those all night flights - seem like such a good idea but C and I can never really sleep) to go far from our hotel (which is excellent - another very good deal through expedia.com). We did manage a great meal which, with beer, cost 20 NZD for many dishes - incredible. Managed to restrain myself from ordering fried pig tails, various stuffed tripey things and sliced snake heads, much to Hen's disappointment. They all ate little hairy-looking cold fried fish as a starter - rugged stomachs, this family!

It is spectacular here. The skyline, the efficiency at the airport, the range of amazing food and, I expect, shopping. It feels safe and pretty friendly, and we have provided much entertainment for the locals with our little blonde children - they are like rock stars here, it is very funny. Ok - now for a couple of pics as we must go off to breakfast before getting back on the maglev to the airport (400kph!!!)

: )

Rome is fabulous

2008-01-11T06:57:00.000+13:00

We love it here. Will do a more detailed update when I am properly back online (internet cafes only right now as we are not online at our lovely accommodation).

Mild temperatures, extraordinary buildings, friendly and great food. As in most places we've been, but with the pantheon and coliseum thrown in!

Henry is even happy to run all day with some gelato and pizza to fuel him, so we are all sleeping like logs.

Only slight blight is the remaining issue with flights back home, as some complex and unintended things have happened with our tickets, but I have faith that it will all work out in the end. It has to. We are going to see/hear the Pope speak on Sunday, so maybe that will help...I will take all the assistance I can get at this point!

Ciao x

Pretty, pretty Paris

2008-01-04T11:44:00.000+13:00

No matter that it is cold and grey, this is such a pretty old town. We spent ALL DAY (well, from 12 til 9) driving here yesterday and most of this morning bickering over driving directions and other silly things, but even so we managed to have a lovely time foux-de-fa-fa-ing around today.

We managed to tick off:

the metro (duhh)
the Eiffel Tower - great excitement from Hen, who has a real affection for it (at 6). Who knew?
the Musee du Quai Branly, which is dedicated to the 'first arts' of asia, the americas and oceania
mooching along beside the Seine
crepe au chocilat (one between four was actually enough - yum!)
Notre Dame all lit up and pretty-like with a gorgeous christmas tree - as above
the Centre Pompidou and
groovy ice skating outside the Palais de Justice (not participating, sadly, just a wee bit too late in the day for small people at their limits)

And we made it back to our hotel in one piece and married. Hallelujah. We changed hotels this morning as I was so incensed with the extraordinarily rude service on arrival last night where we had originally booked. It is a chain we have used in Germany and France several times, but we have never on this trip (except perhaps the Chinese Embassy in London, but let's not go there...) had such patronising customer service. And yes, I have given formal feedback that will make a difference - well it made me feel better anyway.

So now we are at our nice Novotel for an excellent online rate including breakfast, a short metro ride from the centre of Paris.

It can be v difficult and expensive to find quad/family rooms in Europe, with many hotels only allowing one child per room, so Novotels with their 'kids stay free" family rooms can be an excellent fallback option. Tip for the day. Sadly parking is 20 euro a day, but that is just part of being here.

Tomorrow the Louvre and other touristy things. Thank goodness for off season.

x

Presque Paris

2008-01-03T03:52:00.000+13:00

Well, after a quick stop back in Furth to say hello to our lovely friends (who have been struck by lurgies, as has Bella - much snot and congestion - poor!) we are back on the road again, this time to Paris. I have only ever spent 7 hours there, so this time will at least have two whole days...luxury.

We are at the last truck stop before France, on the German border, so it is wiedersehen to wurst and bonjour again to la vie francaise. Only 5 more hours til Paris! Luckily the little people are excellent travellers by now, and pretty good at both sleeping and entertaining themselves in the car.

BTW Fifteen trattoria was one of my best restaurant experiences ever - Jamie Oliver really knows what he's doing, great staff and atmosphere, as well as v yummy food. Thanks Catherine and Marc for a fantastic evening - I felt almost young again!

London part III

2007-12-30T03:28:00.000+13:00

Look at my sweet niece and her fabulous parents. So, so cute. Gwen and Graham have most kindly put me up on this funny little side-trip. I miss my babies terribly, but at least I can cuddle Honor!

We had a lovely vege feast last night at home with a very nice friend of Graham's Michael Maloney - you may hav eseen him as Cassius in Empire - lovely man). Tonight I am having an early dinner with my friend Catherine and her partner Mark at Jamie Oliver's restaurant fifteen. Great excitement! This morning Gwen and I went out for brunch and explored the local shops. Boy do I love British bookshops - they are the best (especially after being out of english-language countries for nearly 4 months). I am being very restrained and have only bought some clothes for the children so far. And a few books (for Conrad, of course).

Off to the Tate Modern now, to hang out with the groovy arty types. I'm sure I'll fit right in...

[PS - had a great squizz at Picasso, Miro, Giacommetti, Magritte...and many others. A cornucopia of coolness. Then when I was leaving I thought I would get a pic of myself with the spider. Little did I realise I ended up with it seemingly perched on my head!!! I do look suitably alarmed though. Maybe that is just my natural state. *sigh*]

London calling

2007-12-29T01:15:00.000+13:00

Ok, I am now in London and not crying (but still looking tired and puffy - could this just be age creeping up??). *Sigh*

This is a relatively good day, then. After many phone calls and emails across the globe overnight (mostly done by Conrad this time - a role swap!), it looks like we can officially go through China after all, without visas. We will transit only (max 48 hours at a time), which means we will miss meeting up with Andreas, who has scheduled himself specially to fly in and meet us. But at least we can complete our trip (which cannot be re-routed on the fare we have).

What a mission. And what a disappointment to have such an appalling experience with the various Chinese embassies. I have letters to write, but will not send them until we have safely transited through the lovely People's Republic...very good advice from my dad -you just never know who's watching.

It is so cute to see my wee niece Honor all walking and, it seems like, almost talking. She was only 9 months old in August when we last saw her in LA, and has grown so much. She is a delight. I will take some pics and add later. Right now I am off to have lunch with my old friend from Otago/Carrington days, Catherine McCloy. I last saw her back in 97 for dinner as I was leaving London after a 2 week nannying stint in Phuket. A flying visit! It will be excellent to catch up : )

Tate Modern tomorrow, I think.

BTW - those post christmas sale shoppers on Oxford St are brutal! Like the Kirks sale crowd on P. Fierce.

One large step back for NZ-Chinese relations...

2007-12-28T04:45:00.000+13:00

So here I am in sunny (hahaha) London, to get Chinese visas. I had been assured by the nice Chinese man at the embassy here that there would be no problem, that I could do it for all my family, blah blah blah. However, I should have been concerned at this point, as I had already been assured by the Chinese embassy in NZ that I could get them in Germany - wrong again.

So I fly over to London from Nuremberg, spend 1.5 hours delayed on the plane in Zurich for de-icing, spend 2 hours and many pounds getting here from Heathrow in the dark, by myself, only to be told this morning that they will not issue visas for the children because they don't have UK entry stamps! Well they wouldn't, as they are NOT HERE! No amount of explaining or even crying would melt the lady's heart. She was adamant that "if you want to come into our country you must follow our rules". Aaargh! Our tickets are booked back to NZ via Shanghai - it is not changeable! So now I am trying to change our v expensive Shanghai-Korea-Shanghai flights to ensure we are not in China for more than 48 hours at either end. More money haemorrhaging out for no good reason. Very irritating.

It does amaze me that while NZ tries to negotiate a free trade agreement with China our citizens are treated like evil overstayers when trying to visit for tourism purposes,. Surely a little inconsistent.

So I cried (embarrassing but unavoidable) and I was really so angry, though I didn't actually lose my temper, just an incredulous raised voice explaining the problem we now have, despite advice from the embassy at home that it would all be fine.

The injustice! I feel some letter-writing coming on. I mean surely not everyone who wants to visit China is in their home country when they need their visas? Crazy system.

I am in Starbucks Piccadilly so I can get online and make yet more changes to reservations. Hrmph. Lots of post Christmas sales here, and I get to see Gwen, Graham and Honor, so those are the upsides. Fingers crossed that this is fixable.

Feliz Navidad

2007-12-26T05:02:00.000+13:00

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Here in Germany we are having, on the 25th, the kind of nice, unwinding day one has in NZ on Boxing Day. Christmas celebrations here are on the 24th, so last night we had the MOST AMAZING meal here, almost all prepared by our lovely hostess, Tiziana.

We had (I kid you not):

pomegranate salad on goat cheese
pumpkin soup
mushroom ravioli in broth
venison
lemon sorbet for palate-cleansing purposes
duck with red cabbage and dumplings
tarte aux pommes
chestnuts

All accompanied by various delicious wines. What a feast - I don't know how those Romans did it. Oh yes I do, goose feathers, that's right. Eeeeuw.

So today I had a lovely big walk while Bella slept, well-wrapped, in the buggy.

Tomorrow I fly to London in the afternoon to get our visas for the China/Korea leg, on the way home. Despite advice from our travel agent and from the Chinese embassy in NZ that it would be easy to get them here, it isn't if you're not residents. Not at all. So, incredibly, it is easier for me to go to the Chinese embassy in London.

Luckily I can see Gwen, Graham and Honor there, which makes the trip worthwhile! It will be very strange to be without my family for a few days, but I will make the most of it by going to galleries etc (the Tate Modern will be cool) and doing lots of brisk walking - always a challenge when we are all together.

I will post a few Christmas pics a little later. Merry Boxing Day!

: )

Farewell France

2007-12-20T09:57:00.000+13:00

We had a lovely time in France, all quiet and villagey-like. We practiced our french, had nice walks, ate far too much duck and drank heart strengthening red wine from vineyards just nearby.

In the last few days we had some very interesting wee daytrips to ancient (like, prehistoric ancient) sites, including the national museum of pre-history. Remember Lucy the Australopithocus from science at school? Well we saw her bones! A cast of them anyway - looked real... I never knew til last week that Cro Magnon man is so named because the bones were found in a small village of the same name, just near where we were!

We went on an amazing guided tour of the grottes font de gaume (just 6 or 7 big people and our littlies, who were amazingly attentive, given it was all in French!). It was very moving and fascinating to see the extraordinary paintings/sculptures created around 20,000 years ago. Try explaining how long ago that is to 3 and 6 year olds!!! Henry kind of got it - he really enjoyed it (with a little translation from me), sweet boy. Bella managed to keep quiet and sustain as much interest as can be expected from a 3 year old in a fairly dark cave for an hour! For those of you who have been to or read about Lascaux, these dawings are much more realistic - same themes (large herbivores etc) but different style. I understand the Lascaux drawings are more like sketches.

And then we headed to our lovely chambre d'hote in Gramat booked by Conrad: Aux Volets Blancs.

And what a wonderful welcome we had. Fantastic dinner of scallop terrine, confit de canard, chocolate mouss (which C and I declined, to save room for the local cheeses offered - yes we are fatter, if you are wondering!) and lashings of matching wine. We stayed up talking with Marie-Josee, the hostess with the mostest, til nearly midnight. Ye gads - like young people! The children loved it - chocolates on their pillows and Tintins to read...nice. Then the next morning I went to the supermarket with Marie-Josee so she could show me the best cheeses and other local delicacies to take back to our kind hosts in Fuerth.

An unremarkable but perfectly ok and reliable night at the Montellier BB Hotel and we were back on Ryan Air flight 563.7 (well, it feels like that...) to Frankfurt. Last carry-on trip for Jamon Jamon the iberican ham with hoof, who made the trip just fine and is now hanging in the kitchen here, waiting to be thinly sliced for christmas.

OK - bedtime for me. Off to Munich in the morning to hopefuly get our China visas sorted - quite a palaver and 50 euro each! Will be great to see a bit of Shanghai though, and be at Bernard and Su Jin's wedding, a great opportunity. : )

Night!

Happy Birthday Miss Bella

2007-12-15T23:36:00.000+13:00

I can't believe my wee girl is three. Where does the time go? She is already seeming so grown up. And I bought her a barbie, against all my "no more plastic cr*p" beliefs. Not the princess barbie, nor even the worthy teacher barbie (I couldn't abide by the little floral dress she had to wear...). I bought Bella the animal caregiver barbie. She has a front pack with a little tiny dog in it, and comes with a kennel thingie, bones, food, etc etc. Oh yes, and she has sensible shoes. When I was Bella's age the dollies all seemed to have perpertually high-heel ready feet. Hmm.

It is actually quite cute stuff, for plastic cr*p, with a range of puppies to rescue. My extreme aversion to dog poo pretty much guarantees this is as close as she will get to having a canine pet.

I am happy to report that Bella has paid no attention whatsoever to the barbie, who sits forlornly to the side, and is far more interested in animal/food/supermarket scenarios. Hurrah! My job is done.

La vie en France

2007-12-12T00:11:00.001+13:00

(Good clean family fun at a nearby village fair on Sunday - 'snow' made from soap bubbles!)

Oh the glamour. My shopping list for today: general cleaner; candles; paper towels; milk; cauliflower; tinned tomatoes; coffee filters; foil and toothpaste. On one hand we are having a very 'normal' time here - making little meals, going for walks, bossing each other around. On the other hand we are surrounded by beautiful countryside and forest where foie gras and various things confit are sold at every corner. Our bakery is a 1.5 minute walk and our little grocery store half a minute. It is a lovely little existence. The quietest time so far this trip. We will be ready for lots of social interaction when we get back to Furth next week, armed with many French delights.

Today we are walking to Pomerade, 2-3 kms away, to have lunch at the restaurant about which Mary Moody both wrote a book and made a documentary a couple of years ago. It is a country hotel/restaurant that has been open for 100 years plus and run by 5 generations of the same family - it is their life. We may be the only non-French people there, and I will battle through with my rusty French as best I can...

P.S: Oh my goodness - what an amazing place. We have eaten at Chez Jeanne twice this week now - not only do you get the most incredible 5 course lunch for 12.50 (including a LITRE of good red house wine for two people), but the atmosphere is so warm and friendly, like being welcomed into someone's home - they work so hard! Lovely ladies, all. Mme Murat is next to me in this pic, her daughter Sylvie, to her right, now manages the restaurant - she is the fifth generation to do so.

Relaxed in France

2007-12-08T12:13:00.000+13:00

Howdy doody. Not tired anymore. Well, a little because it is 12.15, but not in the way I was last post! (The Alhambra was fabulous, btw.)

We had a crazy flight back up on Monday to Frankfurt from Jerez de la Frontera in Spain (see Conrad's post: one drunk and disorderly guy taken off before the flight could leave and then several more en route. Poor flight attendants - note to self, always take morning flights on Ryan Air). We took our just-purchased jamon iberico with its black hoof still intact (as is the Spanish way) on board with us - in a bag, but I was still very aware of the hoof and felt a bit odd, specially coming from an extremely bio-security conscious country such as NZ!
It is a gift for our lovely friends in Germany, with whom we've been staying - not my usual duty-free purchase.

After a good sleep in the BB hotel across from Hahn airport, we picked up our bag of winter clothes and got on a flight down to Montpellier. The little people are coping so well with all this crazy change - climates, countries, languages and food. It has just become normal and it is almost as if they don't even notice it. Hopefully that is a good thing! Developing resilience, and all that.

We walked out of Montpellier airport yesterday into beautiful sunshine. Nice! Took off in our car towards Carcassonne, back to our favourites hostel Sidsmums, where we stayed back in October. The children were so happy to be back there with the friendly volunteers Jo-anne and Ian and most excellent dog Georges.

Two nights there getting back into French mode (including one night spent vomiting for me - bad salmon sandwich en route - eeuw) and we were off again to our much anticipated home for the next ten days in Frayssinet le Gelat.

And what a home it is - the gorgeous French home of Australian author Mary Moody. Do stay here if you ever come remotely near this part of France. In fact even if you don't. It is wonderful. My friend Max lent me one of Mary Moody's books last year and I ended up reading her trilogy describing time here and back in Australia over the last few years - great reads. So I looked up her website and here we are!

We haven't done much yet except settle in, enjoy the peace and quiet and make yummy meals from the local produce, but tomorrow we'll be out and about.

I'm also spending a lot of evening time trying to sort out our slightly complicated travel between Shanghai and Pusan in January for the wedding of the lovely Bernard (Conrad's brother) and Su-Jin. Sweet, sweet couple - can't wait to see them again,

We will make it to Pusan, but it is taking many emails around the world to sort out the logistics of what looked initially like a straightforward hop between asian countries...Beats the dreadful French dramas on TV though!
: )

Tired

2007-12-01T12:01:00.000+13:00

You know this is an AMAZING trip. Once in a lifetime, as people keep saying to us. We are v lucky (and of course it is never all luck). So here we are, in this beautiful city Granada, and mostly what I have felt is tiredness. Maybe it is being away and moving so much, maybe it is being on parent duty so much more than ever before (our first night out without the little people in 3 months last night), or maybe it is just age creeping up. Why doesn't really matter, but it is important to sometimes just be tired and be ok about it, so we are doing just that.

We are staying at a groovy hostel (an Oasis again), so it is friendly and nice and there are cool things like tapas tours and paella nights. People are wonderful with the children and they are having lots of fun. We just get guilty for moments that we haven't seen the Alhambra yet, or discovered more of the city - but I remind myself that it is about the journey as much as the destination, as the cliches go, That we learn as much by being here and just being in a different environment as we do seeing the REAL sights.

Ok - introspection over... We will got to the Alhambra tomorrow and then we will leave Granada and hopefully, if my booking goes through, we will be staying in a cave b and b tomorrow in Guadiz - yay! Henry will be very excited. Bella will too, but she is excited by most things - Henry is a more discerning customer in some ways, or really they are just discerning about different things.

Conrad keeps coming back with 2 euro cocktails from the bar here, so I will have a tiredness excuse tomorrow - a hangover. Wine etc is very cheap here, it kind of freaks me out. I have trouble bringing myself to buy a 1 euro 50 bottle of vino tinto, and invariably pay 4 or 5, which Conrad thinks is crazy but still seems very cheap to me...and it is generally very good wine.

Lovely Lisbon and now Seville

2007-11-28T00:49:00.000+13:00

We had a few lovely days in Lisbon (see Pena Palace above) - no wifi, so am v behind with updates, but we had a nice time! After a day's travel yesterday from Lisbon through Faro and over to Seville, we are just off to have a bit of an explore. From what we saw last night it seems like a very cool place. Will post some photo soon - no wifi in the building we are staying in here, but I will pop down to the main one and see if I can catch up : )

Berlin, Dresden, Prague

2007-11-18T23:39:00.000+13:00

Howdy doody. Haven't blogged for a while - somehow I just haven't been in the mood. We've been kind of distracted from reporting on our trip by rearranging our trip at the last minute, but it has all worked out v well in the end.

We had a fabulous time in Berlin, arriving on Wednesday last week (see me foux de fa fa-ing with Belly below. Michelin woman on a bike *sigh*). Such a handsome city, wide street, bike paths, trees, lovely buildings and of course a fascinating history. It was cold and clear day one so we biked all over, courtesy of Fat Bike Tours (they operate in Berlin, Paris and Barcelona - I highly recommend them - great bikes, v helpful and excellent rates). I am glad my hairdresser in New York was so enthusiastic about the trip he'd just had to Berlin, or we may not have made it there.

On the way there we spent a day in pretty, musical Leipzig and on the way back we popped in to Dresden - both beautiful in their faded glory. We ironically had the worst and most expensive coffee of our entire trip in what is apparently the oldest cafe in Europe (Coffe Baum) - we had to laugh: Conrad's 4.50 euro double espresso (!) pretty much undrinkable. It was still cool to sit and think about all who had been there over the last 400 years... not something we can do at home!

We visited the Stasi museum in Leipzig, which was sobering - the fear and domination that ruled people's lives. The mail that never made it out, the people detained and interrogated, those who tried to sneak out..quite extraordinary. The offices reminded me of the Treasury Stout St offices in the 70s - not the interrogation rooms or disguise kits, of course, but the papery smell and marmoleum. So odd to think it was less than 20 years ago that the veil of the east was lifted.

The History of Berlin Museum (including spooky bunker tour) was fascinating and helped us to understand it all a little more. Conrad went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum while the littlies and I went to the zoo, and that too sounded v interesting. The Berlin Zoo put others I've been to to shame. Not so much Wellington (though some of the enclosures there still make me sad), but definitely Barcelona (oodles of space for people, old style enclosures for the animalia - just not right in this day and age) and Central Park to but name two. In Berlin the animals had lots of space, clean enclosures, few fences (just a wire and a moat for the most part) and even a petting zoo and some Kea! We loved it, and the snowstorm was a big bonus (as below). We saw Knut the baby polar bear being fed, and the hippos, too - cute.

There were many successful breeding stories, written in German so not much detail that I could read, but many new babies of all kinds born in the last few months. Nice.

We arrived back in Furth on Sunday night and had more wonderful R and R with the Osel family. We were due to leave Wednesday morning to drive up to Frankfurt (Hahn airport - Ryanair) to get our flight first thing Thursday morning to Marrakesh. But it was not to be. Hen had big fevers Tuesday night and Wednesday - it was clearly not a good time to whisk him off to North Africa. Sigh. So our kind hosts were stuck with us for a few more days. We hurriedly amended all our bookings (though Ryanair can be unbelievable cheap, they do actually allow pretty good flexibility on changing tickets thank goodness). We credited what we had already paid, not to new Marrakesh tickets as the cheapest at short notice were 169 euro each. But I found some flights to Faro in the very south of Portugal, from where we can in 1.5 hours by bus be in Seville. We still hope to make it down to Morocco by ferry, I mean we have the book and everything now!

We fly out on Wednesday 21st and back up to Frankfurt from Jerez on the 3rd December. Then we fly out the next morning back to Montpellier (sounds like a big backtrack, I know but Frankfurt is a hub so many more destinations within Europe. otherwise most flights are out of the UK. From Montpellier we drive 350kms or so across and up to Frayssinet Le Gelat in The Lot, for our lovely holiday house, that of garden guru and writer Mary Moody.

For now we are in beautiful old Prague. Hen is asleep (still recovering his mojo it seems) so we are still warmly ensconced in our amazing apartment/hotel Artesse, which is just wonderful - 4metre ceilings, huge Windows, a bedroom, lounge, bathroom and walk in closet plus kitchenette. For less than we paid for a hostel in Berlin. Crazy! We feel a bit posh.

Soon we will go out and have a nice roam around. Will post some pics later. : )

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

2007-11-11T11:23:00.000+13:00

I only have a couuple of minutes but check this out - from cool sunshine to full on snow ina few minutes, at Berlin Zoo (great zoo, btw).

Will post more tomorrow.

: ) W

Allemagne

2007-11-07T21:13:00.000+13:00

We've had a fabulous time here in Germany. I have been sad much of the time as I keep thinking about my aunt Rosemary, savouring the funny little happy memories that pop into my head, and not quite believing she's really gone.

It has been a lovely week despite the sadness and feeling so very far away from my mother and her siblings, who are of course terribly grief-stricken. What would we do without email?

We had a week with Andreas, Tiziana and family in Furth, near Nuremberg. They have built a lovely house and filled it with their gorgeous children Adrian (9 - Henry is now his biggest fan), Fabian and Luca (2 year old twins - Bella was in heaven - they followed her around and serenaded her. Literally - as only a 2 year old can. I hope she made the most of such adoring attention!).

A and T are wonderful hosts - we have had delicious meals, drunk lots of wine (but only in moderation, for digestive purposes of course) and had fun with them and the little people. We were all set to go off to Prague on Thurs a.m when I heard about Rosemary on Skype. I couldn't face going anywhere. So we stayed close to home, visiting "Franconian Switzerland" one day, the castle in Nuremberg another day, and having family time all together and in various combinations. It really is a gorgeous part of the world.

Yesterday we picked up another car, having driven our tiny Nissan Micra (on roads with NO SPEED LIMITS - ye gads - definitely a German car next time) from Kehl, just across the border from Strasbourg and left it in Nuremberg. This time we have a groovy VW Polo plus - much safer feeling on the amazing autobahns here, where 140kms can still be slow to those in big Mercedes.

We are on our way to Berlin, which will be v interesting. I have bikes booked for tomorrow but it is very cold so I may rethink that plan. We had snow on the way up yesterday. Eek. We stayed last night in Leipzig, and are about to go into the old town in search of coffee and wurst or cake, whichever looks best. Henry always asks for "anything with meat in it", so we should be ok. Ordering from a completely German menu can be a little freaky when one only has about 10 words to draw from - who knows what will come on the plates??!! We are going to what is apparently the oldest cafe in Europe, and maybe the Stasi museum afterwards. so we can truly appreciate the freedom we take so for granted. The architecture here is meant to be pretty amazing, too.

We will head back to Furth in a few days to switch our cold clothes for our hot clothes before leaving for Marrakesh on Thursday. Much planning still to do for that, thank goodness for hotels with wifi. Strangely the expensive hotels (esp in Italy) tend to charge by the hour, where the smaller, budget hotels tend to offer free wifi - and have more friendly service too.

Okey dokey time to get back on the road. Wiederseihn.

My aunt Rosemary

2007-11-02T01:02:00.000+13:00

My aunt Rosemary died yesterday.

I can't believe it - we were just with her in Toronto in September. She was only 58, and she was sweet and kind and funny and smart. And now she's gone.

I am full of stupid regrets. I know they aren't productive, but they are there nevertheless: that we didn't spend more time together in Toronto; that I haven't been on Skype lately, so we hadn't spoken for ages; that I didn't treat the last time I saw Rosemary like it was the last time I would see her; That I get busy and important things and communications fall by the wayside; and that I still have the little present my mum sent over with me for her, and that I kept forgetting to send. It would have made her laugh. My aunts all have a wicked sense of humour.

I am so lucky to have and to know my aunts and uncles, most of them (in fact all on my mum's side) living so far away. They have all, near or far, been these amazing, glamourous people living exotic lives. My mum is one of five and my Dad one of four, and Rosemary is the first of their generation we have lost. It just doesn't seem right. She had just finished working and deserved a break - to do just what she wanted to do. Rosemary loved her dog Happy with a passion as if he were her child. She gave so much and was so interested in our lives, and those of others. I was just reading the emails Rosemary sent after we saw her in September. She said she was showing her work colleagues the photos of our time together "because they already know so much about Henry and Bella". She adored my babies even before she met them. How lucky is that.

And now she is gone. I wish my children had know Rosemary more and better. She talked about coming to New Zealand next year for a few months. I would have loved for that to happen.

And now her sisters and brother are shocked and grieving, as are we. Though Rosemary had hurt her back earlier this year and seemed kind of frail, she was not "unwell". She had a wonderful semi-retirement ahead. No-one saw this coming.

Rosemary had lived all around the world - even in New Zealand for a while - in the Hutt no less! a childhood in Ottawa and then Vevey, time living and working in Sydney, Inverness, Regina, Toronto and other places. She was strong and independent and always made me laugh.

I just don't really know what to say. Rosemary's siblings and friends will all be so shocked and sad - it is unimaginable for someone you love to just disappear like that, and yet I know it happens to people every day.

This is why we must make the most of who and what we have. Today. How easy it is to live like there is always a tomorrow.

Sayonara Suisse, bonjour Storks

2007-10-29T10:48:00.000+13:00

Hi de hi

Well we've made it north, just above Strasbourg now and back online after 3 mountainous and lovely days. We drove up form Geneva across the Jura mountains, staying in the centre of Comte cheese making (they make 40 million tonnes of the stuff - it is big cheese!). So we had yummy food and a very scenic day and comfy night in Poligny and surrounds.

Then we mosied our way via Besancon to Munster, home of Munster cheese. Also home of many storks - amazing, roosting in huge messy nests on rooftops. They have been saving them there from the v dangerous migration they instictively make to Africa, by keeping the younguns captive (in a nice enclosure) til the urge to go south wanes, at around age 3. Otherwise 90% don't make it back from the long trek south, so it is best to keep them close by. They are truly magnificent birds.

We stayed last night at a fabulous ferme auberge in the mountains above the Munster valley.

And tomorrow we leave France again, but we'll be back!

Night - the time has changed, it is today officially winter in Europe and nearly midnight so off to bed for me. Will post some more pics tomorrow as we have finally had the transferred to a disc.

Ahhhhhhh, Suisse

2007-10-26T10:35:00.000+13:00

You know you're getting on a bit when you are so glad to be in a country because the airport loos are so clean. But that's what happened to me. I resisted going on the French side of Geneva airport because it looked a bit tired, but I relented and they were spotless and shiny and Swiss-like. Happy days. Ah well, we can't all be exciting types. How will I ever survive Morocco? I shall just have to reabsorb.

Anyway, I digress. We've had such a nice week here on the Swiss Riviera. It has been wonderful catching up with my aunt and uncle Ann and Berny. We've been fed and ferried and guided - they have been stars. And not just fed, but fed fondue and filets de perche. My boss Craig back in Welllington made me promise I would eat filets de perche here, and so my uncle took us to a result to a posh hotel in Vevey where we ate what felt like bucketloads of the lovely little fillets. They were in a sinful buttery garlicky sauce with delightful veges and fries that even I couldn't waste my appetite on, but the children enjoyed. It was so yummy that even Mr "I DON'T WANT FISH" Henry polished off his before I could get back from the loo and was begging for mine! And the fondue, mmm - delicious, tasty, rich. We have been fasting on veges the last two days and walking the mountains to recover. Yes, the dairy products are spectacular here - think pear and chocolate yoghurts, nutty raclette to melt on potatoes, coffee with cream. Lucky we leave tomorrow! Conrad has written plenty about the last few days so I will leave it to his witty self to fill in the gaps.

Tomorrow we pick up a car back in Geneva and head by Monday to Strasbourg - looks like a very interesting area of France, which we are looking forward to exploring. Not quite the breakneck Nice-Chamonix-Geneva in a day like last week.

We've stayed in a fabulous studio apartment for the last three days, in Montreux. It has been an excellent home base and great to be able to make our own funny meals. The children have been relaxed and happy, with plenty of outside time, delicious food, playgrounds and fauna. Just the right balance.

On the family news front, Henry lost both his top front teeth this week and looks like he's been in many a bar-room brawl. He's done pretty well out of it though, scored a few Swiss francs from the tooth fairy and has taken it all in his stride. My wee boy is growing up. *sigh* how fast time flies.

A week in Provence

2007-10-20T11:49:00.000+13:00

A week in Provence

Well, nearly a week. After a bit of a squizz at Toulouse (where we stayed in a fairly dreadful hotel opposite the station the last night) we picked up our nice wee VW Polo diesel (we did 630kms on our first tank - amazingly efficient car) and zipped off towards the Camargue. Think fields f black bulls and white horses.

On the way we booked a room at the Mas Grenouilliere, the Frog Farm. Glowingly recommended in the Lonely Planet, with "fields full of frogs that will sing you to sleep", there were sadly no frogs. Not one. Not wet enough lately apparently. However, luckily they had horses, lots of them. So the littlies were more than happy to feed them many a handful of grass. The Camargue horses are amazing - born brown or black but turn white by age four. They are rugged, not needing stabling in the fierce heat of summer or in winter. We had a peaceful, if somewhat overpriced, stay. On the way out the next day we took both littlies on a pony ride. Then Conrad and Henry went canoeing on the Petit Rhone, which was a great hit. After a much needed stop for laundry and a glass of wine we headed for our next stop, a rural self catering gite just out of Salon de Provence.

You just never know what you'll get when you book online, but with the gite we were so pleasantly surprised. For significantly less than the Mas Grenouilliere we had a fantastic, converted barn, Bastide Leydet - huge living space beautifully furnished with a full kitchen, gorgeous bathroom. Luxury. So we explored the local market where I bought a very expensive but delicious "petite tranche" of gruyere (have you seen how big a wheel of gruyere is??!!) we have been munching our way through as we drive..and made a very yummy dinner full of local veges, explored aqueducts and went to a tiny shop full of teeny tiny figurines, all made, fired and painted by a lovely woman - they sound odd, but they really are amazing. We were so amazed that we ended up getting Hen a set of teeny tiny chickens, with which he has already had hours of fun. Cute.

We also came to the realisation that we have a LONG WAY to go to Geneva. Looking on the map in our Lonely Planet France book, it all looked very straightforward - over to the Cote D'Azure then up to Geneva, but actually this last leg up will be quite a mission. My dad rang last night and mentioned casually that he and my mum took 2 days to drive from Geneva to Cannes, however, as I a bit cheekily pointed out to him, that was a good 40 years ago so I am hoping that the roads have been somewhat improved since then!!

We stayed last night at a hotel half a block from the beach in Juan les Pins - having booked a triple room online in Antibes only to be told on arrival that we could not have 4 in the room, despite the fact Bella is only 2 and happy to share. We got a wonderful stereotype shrugging of the shoulders and pouting "it is the rules - not my fault" demonstration from the young woman at the desk - excellent customer relations. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I am now sitting at a waterfront cafe where we have had ridiculously expensive juice (4.50 euro each) and coffee. We just reassure ourselves we are paying for the view of the golfe Juan, which is spectacular - waves lapping gently on the beach in front of us, Cap d'Antibes to our left, Cannes to our right, multi-million dollar launches anchored offshore. A beautiful day.

Conrad is dutifully building sandcastles with Bella (in her undies) and Hen just 20 metres from me - he has been desperate to go to the beach - we found what seems to be the only spot here with free access - no queen's chain here! Restaurants lease sections of the beach for their customers, we walked past them carefully grooming the sand, getting ready for lunch time customers, but not us - we will be hurtling our way north.

We are going to head up through the western edge of Italy - it is that or backtrack, which we are loathe to do. As long as we can find a few playgrounds on the way all will be well!

We made it! We are in Chamonix at another fabulous hostel, Gite Vagabond. Everyone is tucked cosily in and sleeping soundly - yay. It will get down to minus 5 tonight - eek! We are not really prepared clothes wise, though the littlies have many polypros and Conrad actually bought wool jersey in a cool Italian shop before the BIG tunnel (he never wears wool). I will just jump up and down a lot.

Tomorrow morning we leave our car in Geneva, on the French side of the airport and stay in a very nice looking hostel 5 minutes from the station. Then on Sunday a.m we will head to Vevey by train where we are staying in another very nice looking hostel, visiting my aunt and uncle Ann and Berny. It is a good 15 years since I was last there, it will be so nice to show the family the Swiss connection, my mum's family having moved there when she was 15 and the eldest of 5. And it was in Switzerland that my parents met and married, so quite a bit of history, really. Sunday night Berny is making us a cheese fondue - yum! What a treat. We will go and see the Chateau de Chillon, which I loved on my last visit and I'm sure Hen will find fascinating. After that, we're not quite sure! Somehow we will end up in Furth, near Nurenburg, on October 29th...

Castles and cassoulet sigh

2007-10-13T10:44:00.000+13:00

1pm

We're on our way to Toulouse after a fantastic 4 days and nights in Preixan, 10 kms from Carcassonne. Yes, we went to the amazing medieval city and yes, we had delicious cassoulet, but the best part of this week has been our experience at Sidsmums. We knew it would be good, because the website gives a very good sense of the place. But it was GREAT. Marie, Ian and Joanne (UK, Canada and Ireland respectively) who were looking after the place while Jan was on holiday for a week back in the UK, were so friendly and hospitable. Ian and Joanne have actually been there since July as volunteers, and are staying til December.

There was the most lovely dog, George, whom the little people just adored. He is a patient, peaceful big dog and seemed to really enjoy Henry and Bella's little games with him. We took him round the corner to the boulangerie in the mornings, Hen and Belly went on walks with him at night with Joanne and Ian, collecting snails and playing fun games with Ian's torch. It was just so nice. We had local baguette for breakfast, made good meals in the evenings with lashings of local red wine and had lunches out. We even scampered up like mountain goats to the castles at Lastours - so peaceful, so old and really very cool.

The other guests were wonderful too - Leon and Malakai, Marie's partner and 15 month old son; Izzy and Bron from Cornwall; Peter and Dee from Townsville and their lovely sons James and Joseph (15 and 12 - whom Hen adored even more than George!). We had great games of speed scrabble, people built castles with Bella, Hen ran around like a knight on speed with the sword (!) that James and Joseph bought him specially in Carcassonne. We all had a ball.

And we made more plans!

First, to fly to Marrakesh mid November after our time in Germany (from Frankfurt). Eek! Brave - I will be doing much research in coming weeks. We hope to leave the bulk of our stuff in Furth and travel very light, so we aren't distracted by our luggage.

We will then head back up to Spain, to Seville, and then probably fly back to Frankfurt and collect our things for the cold weather. Then I have booked the lovely little house of garden guru and author Mary Moody from Dec 8-15. It is in a wee village 2 hours north of Toulouse. Yay! I read a few of Mary's wonderful books last year, about her time there, so it will be very cool to stay there ourselves : )

So Hen will have his 6th birthday with the camels, and Bella back in France - in the snow perhaps!

10pm
I managed today, at Toulouse Railway Station as my laptop was almost out of power, to book us into an apartment hotel a metro and loooong bus ride from Toulouse - whoops! On the plus side it is excellent value and the apartment is v nice and there is free wireless in the lobby, but I think we may be in walking distance of a supermarket, and not much else...duhh. Peaceful anyway : )

Au revoir St Cyprien Plage, bonjour Carcassonne

2007-10-08T20:14:00.000+13:00

Yay, we are leaving this ghostly place! We are picking up a car in Perpignan and heading in land to Carcassonne - amazing medieval village. We are staying in a wee hostel about 10kms out, run by some people who were inspired by small, friendly NZ hostels they had stayed at! Cool. We have a little chalet to ourselves for two night. It will be great to be somewhere with friendly people who can gives us tips, too, on where is nice to stay etc.

St Cyprien Plage has been a bit like Taupo off season, but with almost nothing open, no buses and very few permanent residents. And lots of poos on the beach - eeeuuw, but you've heard enough about that... We have managed to avoid it thus far thanks to Bella's and my superior spotting abilities.

So we are happy to be getting on the road and exploring this lovely region (Languedoc-Roussillon) a bit. We drop the car in Toulouse on Friday, and may take up the offer of the lovely French couple we met in Portbou to come and stay with them, perhaps for the weekend.

Onwards and upwards!

Bonjour la France, adios Espana

2007-10-07T01:41:00.000+13:00

Portbou was lovely, great accommodation, friendly people and good food.

And now we are in France...

As the Flight of the Conchords so aptly put it: Je ne comprends pas.

?How can there be so many dog trinket, clothing, hairdressing and beautifying shops in Europe and yet the "products" of these beloved dogs are left partout with no regard to the surrounding humans? Je ne comprends pas. I am having issues with caca, as they call it here.

We arrived at our budget holiday park place in St Cyprien plage last night. We walked into our little gravel entrance area (no gate) and there is dog poo right there. I am phobic about dog poo, as many of you will know. Then, inexplicably, the man from the next door unit walks in and takes the sun loungers in the outside area of our unit - without so much as a by your leave. He just says "bon" when it is done - nothing else. It is a very odd start. I guess they had been using our garden for sunbathing.

In our unit there is no toilet paper, there are no no towels - nothing like that. Like a motel, but with less service (is that possible?) Not even the tiny little milk or coffee sachets, of which we would be sadly grateful at this sorry time...Had we known we could have been better prepared. Anyway, Conrad bravely went off to reception to beg some loo paper, only to be told "this is not a hotel" (really??!!). Well, we have been spoiled. Almost every time, wherever we have booked, our expectations have been exceeded. This place was very effectively oversold online, but I guess I should have been a little suspicious of the very low price.

On leaving, you can either clean the unit yourself (though there is nothing to clean it with - however I have now bought paper towels and cleaning liquid) - or pay 50 euros for it to be cleaned...needless to say we will be self-cleaning. There is not even anything to wash dishes with! I guess most of their guests are French people from near-ish by who drive here fully equipped. Mon dieu.

Anyway, most importantly the children are perfectly happy here, and it is for them we came here - close to the beach, pool onsite - that is pretty much all they need and want. The occasional croissant and orangina helps too, of course. And I have now rented towels (for a mere 12 euros!) so things will be a little more comfortable.

Last night we couldn't face finding a supermarket or cooking in our sad little environment, so we went in search of dinner, and wine. Lots of wine. We ended up at the port and the myriad of uncharming tourist-focused seafood places, chose one before chewing our own arms off and in fact had a good meal - none of the lovely and reasonably priced meals like we had in spain, but I had fish soup and salad nicoise, so felt all healthy. Conrad seemed somehow to order a salad (salad paysanne) with chops in it (!) plus a main course also of many meats - it was very funny. Needless to say Hen was very happy indeed.

We walked back full and happier, having a bit of an explore and finding the supermarket. Nothing is open at 10 at night here though, not even a drinks machine nearby - we are very, very off-season.

In the light of day today (Saturday) things are a little brighter: the sun is shining; I have procured some supplies, both for cleaning and nourishing; Hen and Conrad have cleaned the loo (a hazard of the self-cleaning thing - methinks people do just enough to get away without a fine - naughty); I found some horchata de valencia, which Belly and I really like (made of something called tiger nuts? Everyone drinks it around the middle of spain, where we mostly were); I am doing laundry and blogging offline to fill in the time (I quite like doing laundry - nice having all clean clothes for a couple of days) and I found my favourite cheese (La Rustique) for 2 euros 60 instead of 15 dollars at home. I knew there was a reason we were in France. Small mercies.

The others are in the pool and I will join them there soon. I am looking forward to exploring the real St Cyprien - the village, not the beach - later.

A bientot. : )

Portbou, the Pyrenees

2007-10-04T05:39:00.000+13:00

9.30 am

We are now almost in Portbou, two kilometres from France, but still Spain. A little seaside town where we hope to find accommodation for a couple of nights and have some by the sea time before we hit France proper. We have trained here overnight from Madrid - 12 hours as opposed to 5, but much cheaper, saved a night's accommodation and this train goes right up the Costa Brava, not just to Barcelona like the faster trains. I forgot how is to be in those little cabins, trying to sleep but no knowing whether or not other people will be coming in at every stop. Bella slept like a log, Hen too, eventually - quite an adventure for them. 6 little bunks. The main drawback of long distance train travel, of course, is the loos. Let's not even go there - most of you will have been there before and will not want to go back!

Anyway, it was great to spend some time in Madrid - very cool city. We have had better food elsewhere, but our pension was excellent, spotless and friendly and such a bargain. We went to the Prado Museum and even just on one floor saw the most amazing collection of paintings – Velasquez, Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Durer and others as well as an exhibition about to finish by Patinir, an amazing flemish painter...(and as an extra bonus it is FREE entry on Sundays!)

We spent an afternoon in the Palacio Real, such extraordinary opulence - has to be seen to be believed. Also quite amazing to be able to just walk around unguided. There was even a room called the porcelain room, which had walls covered in porcelain figurines - eek! I fully appreciated our fairly plain decor at home - bring on the white walls and polished wood floors... Definitely worth a visit.

On our last day yesterday we did exciting things like laundry and getting to the right station to stow our bags and buy our tickets north (Chamartin, not Atocha where we arrived)… By the time we had done all that and had something to eat we had time left for the Museo de Cuidad Madrid, which had amazing models of the city and great depictions of life in Madrid through the ages. We also made it to the Museum of Natural History, which looked very impressive, but it was too late to go in. A quick helado and it was back to the station to investigate our couchette on the train...and here we are!

Sorry not much detail on Madrid itself - I think Conrad has written more. It was cool though - very walkable, sophisticated metro and sophisticated looking people.

6pm update:

I am posting this from the cafe owned by the people who have rented us rooms, 2 of them, just renovated on the 4th floor of a lovely 1880 (young!) building just around the corner. Portbou is cute and nice. Not v touristy, very off season. We spent a nice quiet afternoon on the beach, cloudy but still pleasant. We`ll stay 2 nights then off to Perpignan to start the French leg of the journey…

Espana...Torrevieja and more

2007-10-04T05:29:00.000+13:00

Hola

(Tuesday 25 September a little out of order!)

I write this from our bus as we leave Torrevieja for Murcia (about an hour by bus). We have had a really good break here, from packing, rushing, lugging bags. It took us a while to get used to the intense UK saturation, but we managed to find cafes where no-one spoke English and yesterday had one of the very best meals of our trip so far. We got the bus into town - we've walked other times but it was full-on sunny siesta time. We saw some authentic looking bar/restaurants so jumped off, on the outskirts (i.e 5 mins walk form the busy areas). We checked out a couple of the three but weren't sure they took credit cards so went to the third - 10 euro set menu, a nice, high ceilinged bar/restaurant, a bit like the belgian bars in Wellington but less overdone, if you know what I mean. We were immediately given a big salad to share, lettuce, onion, grated beetroot and carrot, tomato, tuna, gherkins and olives - almost a meal on its own! And the ubiquitous sliced bread - baguette-type. Then we ordered, tres menus del dia, not quite sure what we were getting...We had amazing seafood paella with an aioli so garlic-y it was spicy hot, a rich chicken soup with big flat noodles and a plate of mixed ham, chorizo and cheese. We were full already... Then came the mains - melt in your mouth beef with a peppercorn sauce, amazing spirals of calamari and fries (which all went to the children!) and bacon, egg and fries - working man's lunch! Oh yes, wine too, and water. A bottle of red wine - included (we had the same the night before but more basic food and only 8 euro!).

Still there was more - we declined the postres but the children had ice cream while we had coffee. Then we had another coffee at the bar and marvelled at the different hams hanging and the rang eof tapas under glass...if only we weren't so full. We have heard that the tapas in Murcia are v good, we just have to work out how to order them without feeling like complete idiots...there is no manual!

While here we have: been to the amazing Friday market; had two swims a day in the pool most days, been to the beach in town, watched dvds and read on the only rainy day (and boy, did it rain - very impressive thunderstorms in the night) and eaten lots of salad and tuna. We feel in v good health.

So the next two nights we are at a posh hotel in Murcia, meeting up with Conrad’s uncle John Roff - here from Canada for a conference, which will be great. And there is apool, so the children will be happy. As there is free wifi at last I willl as usual be spending my evenings booking our next destination - probably Seville, maybe a few days in Mar Menor on the way. Conrad would like some ore time by the sea.

The tricky thing about booking hotel here when you are travelling with 2 children is that many hotels specify maximum 1 child per room. We struck this in Barcelona when we booked a Confortel through Wotif (which I am pretty certain said no charge for children under 12 when sharing bedding...). When we arrived they told us we would have to have two rooms - which at 95 euro I was not keen to do! But they offered us ther 2nd room at no charge as they had not informed us earlier of the issue, and we had booked a couple of days before. So we were a bit lucky - it was a lovely hotel and even had a free minibar. Nice! and free wifi, for which I have paid up to 10 euro for an hour when desperate in other places (e.g the Jolly Hotel in La Spezia - our most expensive accommodation so far, supposedly four star - tired decor, service verging on rude and no free internet). So that was in the end a lovely stay. In Valencia we went back to Novotel - the great thing about this chain is that they have rooms for two adults and 2 children at no extra cost. You can get really good deals if you book ahead, too.

So - no real news, but we are enjoying Spain very much so far. The bus service is excellent too, and cheaper than trains in most cases.

Murcia

2007-09-29T21:12:00.000+12:00

(there is an in-between post but it is on my laptop!)

We have been in Murcia since Tuesday and it has been lovely. We had two days and nights at the high cost low service Hotel Nelva visiting Conrad´s uncle John. It was great to see him again, and lucky little people got taken to Toys R Us and John bought them a remote control boat and a horse (not a real one, one to replace the little one Bella left on the subway in NYC...). Happy, happy! Hen had a great time navigating the waters of the Nelva pool and fountains. We went for dinner to a place in the Lonely Planet - Barra del Hotel Rincon de Pepe, and met John there the next night to try their tapas - amazing food and wine - stuffed calamari wirth black sauce, many many things that don´t sound amazing, but were. Thanks John!!

On Thursday we checked into the Arrixaca apartments through Priceline Europe (great site), 20 minutes by bus out of Murcia town, by a big teaching hospital. It too has a pool, and a fabulous cafe next door, for literally half the price of the Nelva. Yay! Today we will have a bit more of a look around before getting on the train.

We have had a lovely peaceful time here, and are now ready to make the train journey to Madrid, where we have a hotel booked at Lonely Planet recommendation, just near the Prado gallery - yay! Great value and nearby to many galleries etc and to the station where we will arrive tonight. I will take Bella to the Prado while Hen and Conrad explore the museum of science and technology...

From Madrid we will probably fly via Ryanair to Marseille and spend some time in the south of France for a week or two, then maybe some wwoofing before heading to Germany to visit Andreas and family at the end of Oct.

Still no camera connection, in fact our camera is really playing up, so we are thinking of updating the cybershot. I have deleted the ´too much gelato´ shot for reasons of public safety. The food has certainly been lighter here - you always get a lovely big salad with the menu del dia, fantastic.

Hasta la vista : )

Hola from Espana

2007-09-22T00:52:00.000+12:00

Again, no readily available intenet access and when I do find it my time is then used to make bookings!

Since last post we have been to Barcelona (lovely), Valencia (v nice too but v brief), Alicante (to get from train to bus) and are now in Torrevieja, Costa Blanca, for a week in a nice wee apartment. We are all v pleased to be in one place and to be able to cook for ourselves and have lots of nice quiet time without rushing for trains, planes or automobiles. We have been to amazing markets here and in Valencia - nice to be aorund Spanish people - many UK retirees here!

There is a lovely shared pool 50 m from our door and the children are loving such easy access. And today we are in town at the beach - sand makes them so happy! Easily pleased.

We check out Tuesday and head to Murcia to see Conrad´s uncle John, who is here for a conference. Still looking for accommodation there but a few days to sort that out.

Anyway, for now we are relaxed and happy and enjoying gazpacho and paella. Hasta la vista!

Four days, many many miles

2007-09-15T10:07:00.000+12:00

Buon giorno.

Well as I write we are in Verona for our last night in Italia. It has been wonderful, despite a bit much driving the last few days - we have seen lots and just enjoyed being here. I will start with a post I wrote offline a couple of days ago (internet, letalone wireless connections have been few and far between on the road...) and then update you after that:

Monday 10 September

Today it is Tuscany

After a lovely couple of afternoons and evenings in Venice we left yesterday morning via complimentary airport shuttle from our hotel in Quarto d'Altino, to pick up our car at Marco Polo Airport. We got a great deal through Expedia.com - these kinds of sites are well worth checking regularly when en route somewhere. So off we went in our funny little Mercedes smart car thingie. Conrad did very well with the whole other side of the road thing, and I didn't do too badly with the directions. We headed south on the autostrade through Padova, Bologna (where Hen and I tried unsuccessfully to find some lasagna or bolognese, called ragu here, as this is its birthplace! Sundays really are a day of rest here - yay for the Italians, preserving some work life balance, I say) and then decided to head further on to Florence and maybe Siena. We were relatively fueled up on excellent roadside espresso, tuna tramezzini (v yummy sandwiches) for Hen and fantastic gelato from just outside Bologna.

Heading past Florence (yes, you can see the Duomo from the autostrade) at around 4.30 on a Sunday and with no accommodation booked, we decided we just couldn't face navigating a big city right away and decided to push on to Siena if we could. There was a tourist info centre open there til 7pm, so we could find somewhere to stay. Well, it didn't go quite as planned. We had some difficulty navigating our way into Siena - in fact we by mistake ended up driving in the restricted, mostly pedestrian-only cobbled and v narrow area inside the walled city - most embarrassing - I kept expecting the carabiniere to stop us and give us a massive, instant fine as we tried to find ur way back out...But it was raining so pretty quiet compared to the usual hustle and bustle, I expect. Anyway, we missed the tourist info place so drove on a little on a quieter road out of Siena. We went past an agriturismo sign to a large property and decided to give it a try. Big converted farmhouses, but no-one around. A reception office but it was closed - looked all v professional though. Then we went around the back by the amazing pool and found who we think is the caretaker. He had little English (but some French) and we had little Italian beyond the very basics. But we got there in the end and decided on the double room rather than the 2 bedroom apartment (60 and 100 Euro respectively). So we booked for 2 nights - it is wonderful. Fully restored in 92, gorgeous grounds, huge high ceilings, immaculate large bathroom and sun streaming in. See www.levalline.it. There is a gorgeous ozone pool outside, which we will visit when the others are awake. We also got an excellent dinner recommendation and took it - 6 kms down the road away from Siena (from which this place is 6 kms down the road). Cute little restaurant, family run and most delicious. We dined on what seemed like a very rich feast - tortelloni with wild boar ragu for hen, wild boar ragu for Conrad and what turned out to be a pork ragu for me, with salad, and peas with pancetta. Bella had an extremely tasty pizza caprese, which she did a surprisingly good job eating. Our mains were 8-9 Euro and Bella's pizza was 5 euro. It is around 3.50 for a 500ml carafe of house red, cf 4 Euro for a beer - wine is definitely the better option, and 500mls is (surprisingly!) plenty for two.

So, despite cutting back on the carbs we feel v heavy today. We will start taking turns going on longer walks with Bella in the stroller while Hen has some quiet time, each day while we are in Italy. It is beautiful and peaceful and safe around here. It really is just like in the books - gorgeous colourful rolling countryside and villas and castles placed startegically for maximum effect. We will explore Siena today, find somewhere to at least get online and move some money around - I forgot about the huge excess they hold on your credit card when you rent a car! Time to start booking some Woof-ing opportunities too, for when it starts to get a bit colder. : )

Weds 12 September

After a lovely day and night in Siena we headed for the coast, for the water lovers (i.e not so much me...). we ended up in Piombino - sounded cute but wasn't. We found a hotel in teh central town for areasonable price and booked in. Then had our first mediocre, couldn't care less meal so far in Italy - and a 3 euro cover charge per person (including bambini) to add insult to injury! Hrmph. Luckily today was a nice day wandering around and they got to spend a couple of hours at the beach splashing around in the Mediterranean. Hurrah. Now we are on our way north without accommodation booked (again!) and hoping for a good find somewhere near La Spezia. Fingers crossed. It is quite tricky without the easily accessible intenet we take so forgranted at home, and in North America too. After a bit of a challenging few days with a tired and whiney Henry we have had a good day today. Not too busy, not too much walking and regular doses of pasta and gelato for the little people. And Conrad bought him a car this morning, so he has that to play with - simple pleasures. However Bella is wondering about her car...so she will be getting one too. Whoops.

Things I notice in Italy that I don't think would translate well into NZ:

men wearing coloured trousers, not blue or green or brown but red and pink and orange - and I mean guys like our dads...wild!
white trousers, on all shapes and sizes. Sorry but just not practical. Ot flattering. VPL is ok here btw - even (especially!) with white trousers. Ye gads.
consumption of cafe espresso - we just like our milk coffees too much, and our long blacks (neither of which I see consumed here). V short blacks and espresso macchiato occasionally - thaht's it. I ma completely off my soy flat white, double shot latte thing. Possibly for good - or at least until I get home and can make my own...definitely prefer my calcium in gelato, especially here with flavours like melon, ricotta and fig, tiramisu, peach and orange...yum.
tighty togs on men of all ages. No more to say on that one.
belly baring on women of all ages and sizes. Not that it is bad, but here they are very brown, which helps.
cover charges per person at restaurants. You mean you're charging me to sit down??!! Couldn't see it going down well...

Things we could do with more of at home, I say:

excellent espresso everywhere - even at roadside truck stop places. It is like the lifeblood of this country.
with all our milk, great gelato in fabulous flavours (except the blue smurf one that is everywhere and my children keep asking for! Eeuw). Cafe Eis is not enough for a town like Wellington, and v v expensive too.
well grooomed Italian guys (but in more modest togs). No more to say on that one.
Siesta. Here things just shut from 1-3 or so and everyone geos home, to lunch, for a swim, catches up on paperwork, etc etc - no-one expects to get anything done over that time. Except tourists the first day, and we get over it and realise what a good idea it is, especially in this weather, which sadly we don't get much of at home (sorry, but it is true - v hot still here in September!).

Tuscany - just like in the movies...

2007-09-11T02:33:00.000+12:00

Ciao from Siena in la bella Tuscany. Just a quick post as I am in an internet cafe but wanted to pop a few photos up - had them transferred to CD as not sure where my magic cord is (darn).

Beautiful here, as expected. We are staying in a fantastic agriturismo restored farmhouse that we found driving by on our arrival last night (phew). See www.levalline.it. I highly recommend this beautiful place. Half the price of Holiday Inn near Venice - crazy! Two nights here and then heading to the ligurian coast on our way back up and over, before our flights out on Saturday from Verona to Barcelona. Nice balmy weather - late 20s yesterday, a good day for driving down from Venice. Will flesh this out next time - wrote a post on laptop this a.m but no connections to be found. Arrivederci!

La Bella Venezia

2007-09-08T21:01:00.000+12:00

Yes, it is a truly great city. We spent yesterday afternoon and evening traversing the labrynth that is Venice - amazing, so very old, such majestic buildings and stylish people. Friendly too, and not nearly as expensive as everyone said it would be. Despite being told otherwise, we are sure this is the perfect time to come here. Warm weather, but not hot. Not at all crowded but still jolly, and not such tourist-fatigue. And happily almost everyone we heard in Venice was speaking Italian - yay! Feel like we are really here.

We bought 24 hour vaporetto (water buses) passes for $15 Euro each adult and headed up the grand canal to Ca' D'oro. We went to the Ca' D'Oro Franchetti museum - oartly, it must be said, to find a loo for Belly (the first of 6 loo stops for her in the time we were there - ye gads!) but it was amazing - only 2 Euro 50 entry and some amazing paintings and sculptures, some from byzantine times! Then we wandered around the place and soaked up the atmosphere, gelati and pizza to go. Very funny to look in a pet shop window (Venice-style pets - guinea pigs, bunnies and birds!) to see premium tins of pet food for the little tiny Venice dogs made of New Zealand and Australian chicken and lamb - proudly flagged on the label!

We went into the Basilica SS Giovanni e Paolo which was also amazing. peaceful and majestic. We eventually found Piazza San Marco and soaked it up for a few touristy minutes and got a couple of photos - it is overwhelmingly beautiful to see the huge ornate buildings and just the scale of the Piazza itself. Stunning.

We eventually worked our way back over many little bridges and eventually Vaporetto Numero Uno to the station and had a funny self service fast-food italian style meal (see www.brek.com) before hopping on the train back to Quarto d'Altino and the Holiday Inn we are enjoying - ve posh place, last of the luxury stays methinks. (Will check out some Agritourism options while on the road next week.)Henry chirpy all the way back despite it being v late, Bella fast asleep. A great day.

Have just had an amazing breakfast - included in the Wotif booking I made online the night before we arrived. At the Hotel Rex in Bibione it was good - cereal, yoghurt, rolls, salami, ham and cheese. But here it is full hot breakfast too! Ye gads. Bella and I stayed up here as she was a bit off-colour this morning (seems fine now). They broght back a huge tray of scrambled eggs, lashings of bacon, sausage, brioche, toast, cereal - yikes. A feast. We can't eat this way every day, that's for sure...but we all had a good taste of everything, for politeness' sake of course.

We have one more day/night here before picking up a car tomorrow (got an amazing rate online) and heading off to discover more of the bella Italia for a week, then flying Verona - Barcelona next Saturday. We were for a fee able to change our Venice-Paris Ryan Air flights - just not ready for Paris quite yet. We hope to see Conrad's uncle John in Murcia, Spain while he attends a conference there. Then we will head back along the Meditteranean to the South of France and then who knows...

Oh yes - go the All Blacks and all that...we may even watch it if we can find somewhere it is on today!

: )

Over the Atlantic

2007-09-07T21:55:00.000+12:00

We are in the air, about 1/2 an hour out of toronto on lufthansa to frankfurt. and guess what....we are in BUSINESS CLASS!!! My dream come true. After a three hour flight to Rarotonga in business class on teh way to Felicity's wedding (thanks to the generosity of Russell's airpoints!) I have felt a little sad ever since when I have travelled affrodable class.

Well, this afternoon when we checked in we didn't have seats all together - not even a 2 and 2- in fact Hen would have had to sit by himself 6 seats back from the closest one of us. So we check in guy said to talk to them at the gate before we board to see if they can do something so we could all be closer together. We went off to have a bite to eat and Conrad popped back to the gate and left them with our boarding passes. And wouldn't you know it, he came back with these delightful seats - we are in the very front row. Hen is in heaven with his massaging, fully reclining seat - it feels like some kind of karma after our first dreadful 13 hour flight with Hen so very uncomfortable and me in tears in the middle of the night from the sheer exhaustion and wretchedness of being up all night rearranging the little people to keep them sleeping and quiet.

So here we are, sipping on our lovely wine and ordering our seared tuna with wasabi starters, duck a l'orange mains and dessert and cheeses. Shame we ate at the airport at all now!!! Ah well, we never expected to be flying in such luxury. There are two films I hope to watch - should be sleeping as we arrive at 1am our body clock time and will be awake til the evening when we arrive in Venice, but this is too nice to sleep thorugh. I'm sure you can see my point of view. I actually slept ok last night, the first time for ages - not sure quite why I'm not sleeping well. I think a combination of all the change, hot weather, aircon and sharing a room with the two little people, though they have been sleeping well, thank goodness.

In Frankfurt we're meeting my lovely friend Andreas at the airport for a few hours and lunch. We met back in 1990 when I first went to the states on a Student Work Abroad Programme and was travelling in California. He and friends were in a room with a friend of mine at the Globe hostel in San Francisco and we hit it off right from the start, travelling in Califronia with friends and then meeting up at various time in New York and then in Furth on my way through to the UK in 93. He too has two young children now and is back living in Furth with his family when not navigating le monde as a Lufthansa pilot. Then we fly to Venice for 4 days, I think staying in Treviso, seeing our friends the Zettinigs (an Austrian/Finnish family living in Wellington but who summer back in Europe) and then either heading back to Austria with them for a couple of days or up to Paris with our RyanAir flights. We may just take a train from Austria to the South of France. So many decisions, ye gads. Anyway, once we get back online I will make our next bookings. It will be great to see the Zs again and have our kids play with theirs. They've missed being with children these last few days in Canada, though it has been wonderful to see my aunts and uncle after many years.

Hen is having a wonderful time on this flight. Didn't rate the prosciutto starter (waste!) but loved the duck and cheesecake. He's looking very cool in his airline socks and has already brushed his teeth twice from his little business class kit, tried out the earplugs etc etc. This boy was clearly bred to fly this way - last week he put money in a wishing fountain and wished for a MAID! So we're encouraging him to work hard and get rich so he can have one. In the meantime he has to pick up his clothes.

Ok, back to my movie now - Perfect Stranger - tried to watch Paris, Je T'aime but it was only in french and german.

Night! Three glasses of wine, even small airline (vintage) ones, and I need sleep not long after.

: )

Bbbb business class...Bibione

2007-09-06T06:27:00.000+12:00

I wrote a nice post on my laptop while flying BUSINESS CLASS on Lufthansa from Toronto to Frankfurt - upgraded as seated separately- but no hotspots to upload so it will have to wait. We are in Bibione, Italy with our friends the Zettinigs and it is lovely. Crazy keyboards though...We have decided to stay here a little longer and forfeit our cheap Ryanair flights to Paris - go there when it is cooler...Galleries are nicely temperature controlled, right? Must make the most of summer while we can.

We had a v. nice stop in Frankfurt at the airport with my friend Andreas and lunch at the Lufthansa staff cafe as he flies for them, and then sadly downgraded from Lufthansa Business to Ryan Air super Economy (one Euro cent - can't really complain!) for the flight to Treviso. Great to be here in Italy, so family friendly, great wine and the food is so yummy. Not too hot either, so I slept well last night (haven't been able to sleep much so far - despite the generosity of the hospitality or quality of the beds!).

Thank you for all of your messages - it is wonderful to hear from you and Peggy your poetry is unequalled, we love it! Mille Grazie xox : ) W et al

We are alive and well and in Canada

2007-09-01T16:21:00.001+12:00

Aargh - no posts for 10 days, just not the right times or energy levels it seems to sum it all up at the end of the day!

In v brief we had a wonderful last week in NYC. We had a another fun weekend with Eileen and Bob and family and even attended a big Pow Wow thingy (called schemitzun) in Connecticut - native American tribes from all over the US - very cool.

Spent a day over in Staten Island, cruising past the Statue of Liberty on the ferry ride over - lovely day at historic Richmond Town, a nice change of pace.

Went down through Little Italy, Chinatown (amazing Chinese food at crazy prices) and walked past Ground Zero - surreal, and despite the evidence so unimaginable how it must have been that day and those days, weeks and months that followed.

We took B and E's lovely kids walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to an amazing outdoor swimming pool that is in a barge tied up by Brooklyn Heights. Just opened this July, so a cool new thing to do.

Had lunch with my old school friend Jane Hercus - she and I were in NYC at the same time in the early 90s but she stayed on and lived in Manhattan for another 10 or so years, Ironically she has been back in Welly for over 3 years but we hadn't caught up in years, but managed to when both on holiday here at the same time! Lovely to see her, We had yummy brunch at a place called Fetch - dog themed, has to be seen to be believed. Dogs everywhere in the city - mostly small ones, but also some regular sized - seem strangely non dog-like if you know what I mean, with their city/apartment existences. I expect there may be fewer children' s face-biting incidents as a result, however...

So we sadly said goodbye to Peggy Wednesday morning to begin our scheduled 10 hour but actual 13 (!) hour train ride up to Montreal. Bless those Canadian customs/immigration officers who took 2.5 + hours to process 100 passengers (usually takes an hour). So we arrived 3 hours late, just lovely with 2 small, tired, hungry and cooped up children and DVDs that wouldn't play on my wrong-zone laptop. Ye gads - could have been hell-ish but actually people were great and the children were too. We were very glad to get off though, met by my lovely aunt Sally, complete with a care parcel of sandwiches, cookies, juice and fruit!

We stayed two nights downtown at the Canlie Suites and pottered around nearby, including a lovely meal with Sally and Patrick at a Swiss place nearby the hotel - fondue, mmmmmm.

Then tonight we are at Sally's and we had a nice BBQ with my uncle Charles and family here, great to catch up with them after such a long time.

Off v early in the morning on the nice Canadian train (no customs - yay) to Toronto osemary, so best we get to bed. Night!

We very much enjoyed catching up with famille in Canada - they were wonderful with our motley crew, with our lovely stay with Sally and Pat in Montreal and despite the extreme tired and grumpiness of der kinder in Toronto (I hope you have recovered from the longest day, Rosemary!).

We also went on the most amazing "Hippo Tour" (grazie Rosemary) - a great bus tour of Toronto that also goes into lake Ontario -freaky! Great fun all round. A cool city.

We take Manhattan part 2...

2007-08-21T12:05:00.000+12:00

Yikes - I am already forgetting what we have been doing! It has been harder than I'd hoped to make wireless connections, so I am in Starbucks on 96th and Madison. It is 8pm. For once we got the little people to bed before dark after yummy pasta primavera cooked by moi.

So, after day 1:

Day 2 had fabulous hair experience down in soho at John Masters Organics - the whole thing was fab - nice hairdresser, great colour, great smells, head massage and a cut that really goes with my curls au naturel - no hairdryers for me this trip. So my curly hair is free! Sadly the exchange rate has now plummeted since our arrival so things are getting more expensive by the day. Damn - if only we had pre-bought lots of cash at .81c. Ah well.
Had a fabulous afternoon wandering round Greenwich Village and Soho with my old friend Freddy who came down from Boston. He gave the kids Boston (Redsocks) T-shirts, which they put on immediately and braved the wrath of the city. Amazingly someone gave them a seat on the subway home and said" Who says New Yorkers aren't nice people!?!" (ie despite their disloyal t-shirts) - a nice moment. Things seem more friendly here than I remember.
Friday we walked through/across the park to the Museum of Natural History - Hen was v. excited. Entry is hellishly expensive by Te Papa standards - $23 US for adults, $15 or so for a child. Eek! We have decided that in future Hen and Conrad will go in and Belly and I will do something else sometimes as we didn't see much before she fell asleep. Good afternoon.
Saturday we went out to Astoria in Queens for Eileen's son's all american birthday party. It was a lovely day, happy children running around playing ball and whacking pinatas while we drank beer. Nice. We got amazing photos from Eileen's friend Bruce who is a photographer - he gave us a folder of 8 by 10s, some of which we will scan in. They are the best photos we've ever had of us - a wonderful surprise!
Sunday we met up with Eileen and her lovely children Justin (7) and Charlotte (11) and headed downtown through the Chelsea Markets to a blues, brews and BBQs event which was v overrated - we didn't stay long and it started to rain so we headed back out to theirs for a nice home cooked meal before Bob drove us back into the city. We realised this weekend that the children, especially Hen, need to be with other children at least every few days - they have been so happy this weekend bumbling around with people more at their eye level and pace. Playgrounds of the world he we come...
Today (Monday here) we had a long meander down through the park to the Central Park Zoo. Spotted two stars - Sigourney Weaver (whom I also saw 15 years ago in a London park!) and Howard Stern - shock jock I remember from when I was here in the 90s. The Park is such and amazing space, peaceful, many playgrounds, much grass and just a reviving place to be. Hen walked for hours, squirrels are a great distraction.

Will and Peggy have been in the Hamptons since Friday/Thursday, so we are looking forward to seeing them again this week. The apartment is so lovely and elegant yet comfortable, and a fantastic location - 2 blocks from Central Park, 1 block from the subway and surrounded by handy little shops (and many v expensive and not handy ones...).I will try to sort out the photo thing and post some soon. Time to leave the Starbucks zone. Night! x W

First we take Manhattan

2007-08-20T03:26:00.000+12:00

Well it has been a while since I have posted. We are in almost the normal swing of life here in NYC - albeit staying in a gorgeous, elegant, luxurious apartment on Park Avenue with Peggy! It is wonderful to be back here, and we have had such a warm welcome - the children are in heaven. We arrived Wednesday morning after an OK flight across the US (only left an hour late...) and our lat couple of days with Gwen et al in LA. We made a bit of an embarrassing mistake getting the bus to the airport (via UCLA) - we got on it going the wrong way and so we only JUST got to the airport in time to check our bags in, though it didn't matter as our flight was delayed in the end. Phew.

Peggy had kindly organised a car to collect us, which was a relief not only because it was a luxury town car, but also because it tool around an hour to get here due to traffic - would have been a very expensive taxi ride, and we hadn't really had any sleep (the children were fine this time though - yay for the extra seat beside me!).

I must admit I did drink the coffee - they serve Starbucks on the plane! Hmm, coffee - probably shouldn't get me started, but Wellingtonians you should know this: good espresso coffee is not at all the norm here in this wonderful foodie city - the only lattes you'll find easily are at Starbucks and are very weak, and the norm is brewed coffee, even at the posh places. It is generally good and strong, but not what we are used to being so standard at home. I guess time is part of it - faster to just pour and go - and a lot cheaper. A big 16oz strong cup of coffee from the fabulous gourmet garage one block up from here is $1.95 compared with $3.25 for a weak latte at Starbucks. Conrad has been on the hunt but is coming to accept the reality of the filter here : ) OK - enough about the coffee for now!

Day one we stayed in the neighbourhood. We went to the playground at 96th and Lexington and Hen got completely soaked playing under the sprinklers and having crazy water fight with his new black and hispanic friends - he didn't want to leave! Then it was off for man haircuts from the uzbekhistani barbers one block up...

La la land

2007-08-13T03:12:00.000+12:00

Fabulous place. We arrived yesterday afternoon , picked up by Graham in the Prius they are using at the moment, lovely silent hybrid - and you get nice subsidies for driving them here - if only we had that at home! Would love one. After lunch at G and G's we wandered down to Santa Monica - the Pacific Palisades (towards Malibu) end where Conrad spent literally an hour doing what seemed like very rugged ocean swimming - he was in heaven. Even Bella went in while Hen happily made big holes and castles. On the way here we went down the steepest and longest stairs I've ever been down - the fourth street steps, there were lots of scantily clad sweaty people coming up, then I realised they were going up and down for fun - or exercise, which seems to be a major source of fun here. People all look so fit this part of town - I guess it's not like they have bad weather excuses.

Having not been here for 17 years I have been struck by the friendliness of people here, from the lifeguard at the beach to the people packing groceries ( who had to translate "help to your car?" for me - they offered help with my THREE BAGS! I had no idea what they meant - embarrassing). Today we're off to a farmers market in Venice, we've all slept well (in fact Bella is still sleeping) so all set for a big day out. Conrad is going hiking in Topanga Canyon rather than shop with us - probably a wise choice. Wee niece Honor is such a delight, Bella is so happy to have a real, live baby to play with. Not many photos yet, but many to come, I'm sure - just need to get back in the habit. Will set up a flickr thingie.

Animal, vegetable , miracle

2007-08-01T22:08:00.000+12:00

Something that has got me thinking about what we eat and how it grows is this life-changing fabulous book, by Barbara Kingsolver. Even though I'm not much of a gardener-y type this book has had me absolutely entranced. It is a great mix of personal account, scientific fact, recipes and general inspiration about doing things right for the earth and our fellow animals on the planet. Not in a preachy way but in a "wow, I can do things that are great for me and for those around me" cool kind of a way.

For me it is about exercising choice. Just as we are exercising choice not to put Hen into the formal schooling system til he's 6, I want to make an informed choice about the food I put into my family and me. I know it is a bourgeois issue and I am just lucky to have safe food I can afford, but given I have the choice it seems wrong not to make the most of it and do what is right. For example, I don't buy battery chicken or eggs. I will not eat feedlot beef in the US (just wrong in so many ways). When I shop I minimise packaging wherever I can. We use organic fair trade coffee and organic milk in our business.

We recycle what we can and have compost and guineas so not much rubbish goes out our doors. I know there's much more we could do but everything makes some small difference, and if each of us can make a small difference that adds up to a big difference over time. I do think our children need to understand, too, that food COMES from somewhere, and that it matters that we know that, and what it contains. Why wouldn't we?

So knowing we will be in the States in 10 days I am researching the nearest farmers' markets and planning to make yummy seasonal meals for our hosts whenever we can. Fabulous markets near Gwen's (and even a just-released Santa Monica Farmers' markets cookbook!) and as well as the big one downtown each weekend, there are markets (albeit Upper East Side highly priced markets!) to buy sustainable meat etc within blocks of Peggy's. Yay. And even places to get REAL beef burgers for my carnivorous son.

Ok - enough of a rave for tonight...

10 days and counting...

2007-08-01T21:48:00.000+12:00

Well, we're off, it's real - we are heading out into the world en famille. After much to-ing and fro-ing with passports and itineraries we are all confirmed and even packing up the house at last. The littles are having great fun with the boxes (see, who needs TV?) and things are slowly but surely falling into place.

We've rented both home and business to two lovely Fuel baristas from whom I've been buying my coffee for the last year or so. They are friends so there will be some good synergies there for them and they are just lovely people - we are all very happy with arrangements. Plus we can leave our pictures on the walls, lamps, shelves, table and chairs etc in the house as Louisa and co. don't have much house stuff, so much less to pack.

Not scintillating stuff, but necessary! I have had a lovely time booking planes and trains (no automobiles yet...) and hotels online to fine-tune the first few weeks.

So far the itinerary looks like this:

Depart (AirNZ) Sat 11th for LA, stay there with Gwen, baby Honor and Graham for three days.
Tues 14th fly (United) to NYC overnight arriving first thing Wednesday. Right now I have a hair appointment booked for 11am but may change it to the next day - figured I may as well get my long overdue roots done there and have a lasting NYC experience at John Masters Organics!
Stay with the wonderful Peggy and Will in the city, and maybe Eileen and Bob and family (my best nannying friend) a night or two in Astoria, Queens. We are cutely going to her 7 year old son Justin's birthday party the first Saturday, which will be wonderful - the kids will be in heaven too!
Take the AMTRAK train on the morning of the 29th August up to Montreal. Stay at a hotel downtown (thanks to my aunt Sally and her Swissair connections!) with a rooftop pool (!?!) and explore the lovely bilingual town. One night at Sally's near Dorval then on Saturday 1st
Over to Toronto by train and one night in a downtown hotel there with a 4 story waterslide - Conrad will be in heaven this time! And we are catching up with some family friends of Conrad's which will be cool
Up to Kitchener Ontario on Sept 2nd to visit my aunt Rosemary and a wildlife park and various other things then we depart (Lufthansa) Toronto for Frankfurt on the 3rd.
Arrive Frankfurt on 4th September then fly that afternoon via Ryanair (amazing bargain flights) to Venice til the 8th and hope to catch up with friends there who are on their way back to NZ.
Fly to Paris on the 8th (again via Ryanair to Beauvais, 100kms or so out of Paris) and the unknown adventure begins!!!

All very exciting. Til then need to pack house, bags, finish up at work and do things like go to dentist, joy. It won't feel real til we step on that plane. The littlies are getting excited and asking many questions. They are going to love even the plane rides I expect - screens right in front of their little faces - the forbidden fruit!

: )

Up, up and away...in two months or less!

2007-06-19T21:50:00.000+12:00

Ok, the official beginning of our trip preparation.

We are going in TWO MONTHS - we are now committed. Yesterday I told my old boss in New York (Peggy Noonan) that we would be there in August - it works for her and for Will who was my 'charge' for 2 years way back in the early 90s - he has just finished his first year at varsity so it well over time for a visit. And we can stay with Peggy back in the east 90s of Manhattan which will be soooo nice. They are great people. Can't wait. It will be lovely being back in the old neighbourhood, this time with the whanau. I hope they love it as much as I did as a younger lass.

Very exciting - just working out who to fly with, pending settlement on our house, which is funding the trip. We have now officially joined WWOOF and are browsing chateau volunteering opportunities to apply for in France.

So just what seems like a million passport forms to sort out to both renew NZ and get my UK passport, the house to rent, the business to lease...and we'll be off. *phew*

: )