The Beach Blocks Blog

Its the end of the world as we know it

2011-05-20T21:15:00.000+10:00

It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine, ( I actually feel much better than fine!) The title of the blog has nothing to do with confluence of religion and maths that happens tomorrow, 21 May, but with the end of nappies. Granted, Ellie has only been wearing a nappie when she sleeps at night, only pees in it, and takes it off and puts it in the bin when she wakes up, It is still the end of our world. On top of that we have bought a house and move in on June 2! In light of the approaching end of the world and to honour REM’s song of the same title here is our long delayed blog. (Read it really fast!)

Emma and I went to see John Williamson, an Australian icon, and had a fantastic time! The kids are loving their new teacher at school for 3 days a week and swim lessons every Friday. Alex continues to improve and Ellie has gone from being afraid to put her head under to swimming like a fish and showing off to her class. She also progressed from clinging to me during lessons to doing her lessons without me in the pool. Eric started swimming a couple days a week with the Gold Coast Tri Squad in Southport on the Gold Coast even though it is quite a long drive. I also did my first open water swim at the Cooly Classic, a 2K swim in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. It was lots of fun and I placed near the top of my age group. We spent lots of weekends over the last few months looking at houses and after selling our house in London we finally bought a gorgeous house. We close on May 31 and move, again!!, on June 2. For the Easter holiday we went to Sydney. Emma’s family from England were all over in Sydney visiting. I drove down again with the kids. As we were getting in the car the DVD player broke so I spent 13 hours with the kids throwing things, fighting, and asking “Are we there yet?”. Emma flew down for 2 weekends as she had to work. In between we enjoyed Sydney. The kids love the ferries and there is a large selection of “fast” and “slow” ferries as the kids call them. Hard to believe Alex needs a new US passport already so we went to the consulate in Sydney to get the paperwork done. Later we went up the Sydney tower and enjoyed the spectacular views. The kids got Nintendo DS’s from nana and cousin Beth and Ben were quick to show them how to play. Ellie especially was soon inseperable from her DS! I was signed up to do 2 different ocean swims but both were postponed due to poor weather. It rained for most of our trip to Sydney. We went to Luna Park and Alex loved the Ferris Wheel and Dodgem (bumper) cars! We went to Manly and enjoyed the fish in the Aquarium, especially seeing that they all had Easter eggs in their tanks! For my birthday I wanted some good American chow, so there is no place better than a trip to the “Outback Steakhouse”! for a yummy time. Everyone went into the city to see “Hop”. The kids all loved it and as we were leaving they were rolling out the red carpet and setting up the champagne as a couple hours later they had the world premier for “Thor” since the lead is an Aussie! Eric went with the grown ups to my second Aussie rules football game to see the Swans and the Sydney Cricket Gorund. I rudely discovered that Sydney is a little more formal than Brisbane and I needed to make a trip to the merchandise store to buy a shirt with a collar! I also got to see my first Rugby Union match as we went to see the Waratah’s win! Easter Friday we had a wonderful lunch at the Creech’s with the whole clan that had been there for Christmas lunch as well as everyone from England. It was quite a feast with fabulous company! The kids went crazy hunting for chocolate eggs on Easter morn and then we all went to a great park for a BBQ and lots of running, cricket, climbing, and sliding. With poor weather we didn’t make it to the Sydney Royal Easter Show (like the state fair in the US) The kids still got their show bags, one full of airplanes for Alex and a little pony one for Ellie. We got to see lots of friends and had a fantastic time with the English side of the family. The kids loved seeing their cousins, auntie and uncle and of course, nana and da. Emma’s holiday was finally up and time to drive home. Emma enjoyed her drive back up sans car DVD! Not long after getting home I finally got my teaching registration for Queensland so I can start looking for a job! To celebrate Emma’s birthday we all went to see Hi-5! The kids have watched nothing else in the weeks both prior and since. We may be done with nappies but it will be a while until we outgrow kids shows! It has been a couple hectic months and still lots more to go. It is the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine...

Summer Fun

2011-02-24T21:24:00.001+10:00

Brisbane is slowly getting cleaned up from all the flood damage. Emma’s office building was one of the last and even then the fire systems in the building were not working for several weeks so they had to have security guards on every floor with whistles in case a fire was spotted. The car park under the building is still not ready yet. Just last week some of the ferries started running to most of the ferry stops although there are still some not repaired yet. Our favorite park, New Farm park, which is right by the river is all cleaned up and we spent last Sunday morning there with some friends. The dads had the kids while all the women enjoyed brunch. Last Friday night we went to see the movie “Tangled” under the stars in New Farm park. They have a large screen on the side of one of the Powerhouse Art Centre buildings. You can rent beanbag chairs or bring your own blankets and pillows and sit on the grass and watch the flick. We had a blast watching the movie while watching the moon rise and the bats fly over head. Several of the kids friends joined us and everyone had lots of fun.

January 26 is Australia Day and celebrated much like the 4th of July in the US. If you are close enough you head to the beach or else have a barbie with friends and enjoy the sunshine. The day is to honour the landing of the first convict fleet. We headed out to the beach on the Sunshine Coast with Aunty Kat and had fun playing in the sand. The waves were a bit too big to swim for the kids but they had fun making sand castles and getting their feet wet. We are fortunate to be right between the Gold Coast to the south and the Sunshine Coast to the north, both with lots of nice beaches. With all the nice weather we have had we have spent lots of time at the pool. The kids just love spending the day at the pool and we are spoilt for choice! They also have swim lessons every Friday and they are making really good progress.

On February 12 Emma and I celebrated Valentines day with a nice dinner and a show. Our friends the Swarts were nice enough to volunteer to watch the kids. Alex and Ellie just love playing with Cian and Niamh so are always happy to see them. We had a lovely dinner at The Fox. It was nice to have some really good American style ribs! Then we walked over to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre for the show. The centre is right by the river and the show’s opening had been delayed by two weeks. The night we were there the car park was still closed. We saw “Wicked” and it was wicked good! We are really enjoying being in civilization again and being able to go to shows. It was an awesome night out and a lovely Valentines!

We have been looking at a lot of houses and finally come to a big decision. We have put our house in Stratford up for sale so we can buy something here. If anyone is looking for a house a short walk to the new Olympic Stadium, Aquatic Centre and athlete’s village in London then give us a shout. It was hard to decide to part with the house. Although it is very tiny and we would never live in it again, we really enjoyed living in it when we were in London pre-kids! Based on what we have heard it should sell quickly then we can get serious about houses here!

We are all still loving life in Brisbane and in Australia. I have come up with one more complaint for Australia Post. This is the first place we have lived since London that delivers the mail right to your house. The kids love it because the postmen ride motorbikes down the sidewalk stopping at each house to stick the post in the postbox. Since they usually have to reach they usually only stick the letters half way into the box, leaving a bit sticking out. It does tend to rain here a lot, especially on short notice a rain storm will sweep through. That means that we frequently end up with wet mail which is getting very annoying.

I find the Aussie slang here very amusing. They of course have a penchant for shortening words and putting a long “I” on the end. The famous one is barbie, for BBQ, or eskie, for a cooler, or cossie, for a swim suit, or Aussie, for Australia. They also like to put an “o” on the end of a lot of words like speedo, for speedometer. As in most countries, different regions also have their own slang. Cossie is the most common term for a swim suit. Here in Queensland they call a swimsuits “togs”. I have come across my favorite term though, many times. They have used this term in the papers and the radio when discussing Tony Abbott, the leader of the federal opposition, who is athletic and does triathlons and swims. I found it hilarious when I came across it recently though. We are going to Sydney over the Easter break as the Tonks and Taplins are coming out from England to visit. There is an ocean swim in Bondi during the time we are down there that I am going to sign up for. While reading the website for all the details I came across this discussion of what you are allowed to wear. This has been a big issue in the sport of swimming the last couple years so of course they wanted to be sure everyone knew what was allowed. I have copied it exactly as it is written on the website and highlighted my favorite term for a men’s swimsuit.

Cossies

To qualify for points in the series, swimmers must wear only conventional cossies. This means no fastskins, no wetties, no cossies that cover any part of the arms or legs. Blokes must wear conventional budgy smugglers, and laydees must wear one piece or two piece, but without arms or legs. No hi-tech material, either, and no material with any flotation property.

A budgy is a small parrot native to Australia. You have to love the Aussies!

Vanuatu

2011-01-27T15:36:00.000+10:00

A couple weeks ago we finally received notice from the Australian embassy in Washington D.C. that my resident visa was finally ready after five months. In order for them to issue my visa, I had to leave the country for at least three business days. We were never able to get any explanation as to why this had to be done. Maybe they have a very slow internet connection between the embassy and Australian immigration and it takes that long for the info to get there. Whatever the mysterious reason in this day of technology, I had to leave. Now I know what most of my Aussie friends would recommend, but I did look it up and technically, Tasmania is NOT a separate country. Since it was short notice and we already had a nice family holiday over Christmas, it was going to be just me. After doing some research we determined that Vanuatu is the closest foreign country to Brisbane and also the cheapest to fly to.

I knew very little about Vanuatu when I booked my flight with Air Vanuatu.( The Air Vanuatu flight was very god. Good food, good service and only a 2.5 hour flight.) It consists of 83 islands with a population of about 240,000. The biggest island, Espiritu Santo, was home to numerous military bases and tens of thousands of U.S. troops during WWII as the primary staging base for operations in Guadalcanal and the Solomon islands. At the end of the war most of the left over equipment was tossed into the ocean and now makes for some great diving sites. It is also where James Michener once lived and wrote “Tales of the South Pacific” that would become the musical “South Pacific”. My flight stopped off in Espiritu Santo both on the way out and on the way home to drop off and pick up passengers. I didn’t get a chance to get out here.

Pentecost Island is home to land diving, the inspiration of bungee jumping. You can go and see the land diving on Saturdays from April to June. I didn’t make it to Pentecost this time round as it was not land diving season. Tanna island has the world’s most accessible volcano where you can see the spectacular lava bubbling and spitting. Tanna is also home to the John Frum cult. You really need to read the link explaining how this cult evolved after WWII as the islanders hoped to get the Americans to come back with their unbelievable quantities of supplies. You can still watch the ceremonies as the cult is still alive and well. This is just a taste of what Vanuatu has to offer. I headed to Efate Island and the capital of Port Vila. The international airport in Port Vila is named after LTCOL Bauer, a US Marine who oversaw the building of the first runway at the spot of the airport in Port Vila.

I stayed in a pleasant budget holiday, the Holiday Hotel, just a short walk from town. The island is beautiful, lush green, with towering hills. There is a huge choice of options to partake in without even leaving the island. I had arrived on Tuesday evening, Jan 18, and had a lovely stroll through town and a nice dinner by the water. Wednesday morning I had my first ever stand up paddle board lesson. I met the instructor from Vanuatu kite surfing at Bodega Tapas Bar by the water. We spent the morning paddling around the calm lagoon as I tried to stay on the board. After too many dives into the water, I started to get the hang of it. Thursday morning I was off to Lololimo Falls with Ecotours. We had a lovely drive up into the hills around Port Vila to a large organic beef ranch owned by the Catholic mission in Vanuatu. We trekked down to the spectacular falls. I enjoyed swimming in the falls and exploring a large cave around the side of the falls. There were huge stalactites and stalagmites as well as bats sleeping on the ceiling. Then we climbed right up the falls and trekked down the river. There were smaller falls to climb as we travelled up river. We then headed into the jungle and ended up back at the base of the falls. One of the good things about Vanuatu is there are no poisonoues creatures so as we trekked through the jungle you can put your Aussie instincts aside and not worry about snakes, insects and crocs. Pascal, who owns Ecotours, and his guides Henri and George were very knowledgeable and took great care of us. We had fun swinging into the river on the rope swing until it was finally time to head back to the hotel.

Transport to the falls

Wednesday night I went to the movies. The movie theatre in Port Vila is by the water at the Nambawan Cafe. As the sun starts to go down they put a big sheet up and once it gets dark they show the movie on the large sheet. The Nambawan Cafe is also a great place for pizza or some awesome fruit smoothies and free WiFi. They show a movie on Wednesday, Friday and Satuday. The Wednesday movie I saw was “Winter’s Bone” which I had never heard of before but was very good, if a bit unusual. One of the most interesting sites in Port Vila is the fruit market which is in the centre of town on the water. It is open 24 hours a day, six days a week. I was too tired every night to investigate who was buying fruit at 0200 or 0300 in the morning. There is a mind-boggling variety of fruit that has just come from the jungle or the farm. The market is bustling during the day and you can entertain yourself for hours just wandering through and watching the people. The best place in town for either breakfast or lunch is Jill’s Cafe. (It is not open for dinner or on Sundays. Jill’s Cafe is the American way!)

setting up the movie screen at sunset

Friday I was off sailing and diving with Sailaway Cruises. We had a drive up to the north side of the island. The hills are really steep and we were concerned the van might not make it to the top with 15 people in it. Going down was like being on a roller coaster. We got on the trimaran “Golden Wing” in Havannah Harbour and we were off. There were only 12 of us on the boat and had a comfortable trip relaxing on the deck sailing through the waves. The owner, Australian Peter, and local crew Eric and Silvano, ensured we had a terrific day. We motored out to Hat Island (not much wind in the morning). We anchored and Peter and I went for a dive. It was awesome to dive without a wet suit the water was so warm. It has been a long time since I dove without a wet suit. The coral was amazing. A cyclone had gone through just a couple weeks before and lots of coral had been broken off and was lying littered on the bottom. Even with the cyclone, the coral was amazing. After we came up lunch was ready. It was very tasty home cooking and filled us up. Then we put the sails up and sailed back to the main island and anchored of Survivor beach. This was one of the beaches they lived on when they filmed “Survivor Vanuatu”. (Of course the opening sequence of the TV show shows the volcano from Tanna, no where near where the survivors lived and competed. We also learned lots of other juicy details of how different “reality” and the reality TV show actually were!) We went ashore and wandered around and saw the freshwater stream. Then we were off to a reef out in the open water. I did another dive with Peter. (I was the only passenger diving, everyone else just snorkeled.) The fish at this site were unbelievable. I don’t think I have ever seen such a humongous variety of fish in one dive before. There were also some cool swims through narrow canyons. Peter had briefed me that there were some spectacular swim-throughs. At one point I thought he signalled to me that he was going into a cave. I thought I must have misunderstood his signal because I couldn’t see any entrance, just the under-hang of some large coral. A few seconds later he had dropped in and completely disappeared. I followed and we swam through a long, very cool, tunnel that was barely shoulder width wide. You had to be careful not to let any of your cables or hoses get caught in the coral on the side. After some tea and cake, we were sailing back to the harbour. It was an incredible day and a definite highlight if you ever visit.

Hat Island dive spot

Saturday I went out with Ecotours again. Pascal couldn’t make it but George took us out kayaking. After picking us up at the hotel, we drove east along the coast to where the Rentapao River. We paddled up the Rentapao river. It was just lush green the whole way with no signs of civilization. We stopped a couple times for a dip in the river or some tales of local traditions or information on the flora and fauna from George. At one point George hopped ashore into the jungle and showed up a few minutes later with some fresh picked grapefruit which were delicious and nourished us for the paddle back down the river to the coast. It was another excellent adventure and highly recommended for anyone visiting. Vanuatu is known for its organic beef. There are lots of large cattle plantations and plenty of well watered, fast-growing grass. For my last dinner I thought I would have some nice beef. I went to the “Flaming Bull”. The bar in the restaurant is called the Kelly Bar with the appropriate armour out front. Anywhere there are lots of Aussie tourist you will find some reference to the infamous criminal, Ned Kelly, who is a national hero. I had some yummy beef fajitas while listening to some Reggae and enjoying a nice cold Tusker beer while watching the sunset across the bay. No matter how small the island it will have its own beer.

fresh picked grapefruit with George

Port Vila shouts down for the weekend at lunchtime on Saturday. Only a few restaurants are open. Emma and the kids were fortunate that a cruise ship pulled into port on Sunday morning. When a cruise ship is in town, many of the shops open. That means I had a chance to do some souvenir shopping. This is a priority as shortly after giving me hugs when they picked me up at the airport and saying hello, the very next question is “What did you bring us?” Sunday morning I also did one more paddle board session. After a rocky start I finally got it and had a beautiful paddle around the lagoon. One of the other guys paddling with me saw a large dugong (manatee) swim by just off to the side. It was another peaceful trip home on the flight. This trip is the first time I have flown without at least one kid in four-and-a-half years!

sunset in Port Vila

Vanuatu is an amazing destination. It is beautiful, relaxing and full of adventure opportunities. The people are so friendly and laid back, they never hassle you or pressure you. They also have an interesting, unusual and long history and culture which they are very eager to share. If you are ever in the area, or looking for that authentic South Pacific experience, then head to Vanuatu. They have something for everyone and you will be both tired and relaxed and chilled. I had no problems with my visa upon arriving home in Brisbane. It seems the three business days is enough to have a visa ready to issue. I was expecting a big party and celebration when I went through immigration. The officer just looked at my passport and his computer and then stamped my passport and handed it back. I was a bit worried that maybe my resident visa hadn’t come through and he had just found my tourist visa on the system. After asking he assured me I was fine. So I became an official resident just in time for my first Australia day on January 26. Now the next task is to get the mounds of paperwork done I need so I can get registered to teach here in Queensland. Having to leave to get my residents visa wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

The Great Flood of 2011

2011-01-17T20:30:00.000+10:00

It has been such an interesting week that I have had to change the title of this installment as unforseen events turned a short, slow story into the headline of a century. Last Saturday, Jan 8, we went down to the Gold Coast to see Disney Live’s “Princesses” show. It was a live stage musical with Mickey and the gang telling short versions of “Snow White”, “Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast”. The convention centre was full of little girls in their favorite princess outfit. We all enjoyed the singing, dancing and stories. After the show we discovered that there is a monorail in the Gold Coast that runs from Jupiter’s Casino to a shopping centre. Since we have a young boy who loves monorails, we rode it a couple times with a break for lunch. Last Sunday it appeared it was going to be a quiet week so I had already labelled my blog “Princesses” since it was obviously going to be the main event of our week.

waiting for Disney Princess show to start

Before Christmas we ended up with our first family pets. Aunty Kat gave the kids her two goldfish. They had really enjoyed feeding them every time we were at Kat’s house so this was the next logical step it seems. Alex named his fish “Golphy” and Ellie demonstrated just how sharp she is by naming her fish “Flushy”.

We don’t have a dryer so I am very attuned to the changes in weather. With all the rain we have been having the last two months it has been difficult to get the washing done sometimes. Last week I was sitting upstairs on the sofa with the kids when it suddenly struck me that it had started to rain. With a load almost dry on the line, I didn’t want to lose another batch. I jumped up shouting “Its raining, the washing”. The kids just burst out laughing at me. My concern over rain and washing is still a running family joke.

Sunday night, Jan 9, we were having dinner over at some friends house. Paul and Michelle have twins, a boy and a girl, who are exactly between Alex and Ellie in age and they get along really well. The live in New Farm, which is right along the river, in a ground floor apartment just a few metres from the riverbank. We were sitting out on the patio watching the river go by, the rain falling and the bats flying around the huge fig trees. They moved here from Oregon and were commenting that the rain here in the last couple months was much worse than the weather in Oregon.

Wednesday evening, Jan 12, they were all over at our house for a BBQ. The rain had stopped the day before but it was more than a visit for dinner and some play time. They were here to stay for a couple days, evacuees from the Great Flood of 2011. All the rain in the last couple months was too much for the Brisbane river. The last great flood in Brisbane was in January, 1974. Partly as a result of that flood they built the Wivenhoe dam upstream. As a result of almost ten years of draught in the region, 18 months ago the dam was at 17% capacity. The story goes that the experts were saying it would take ten years of above average rain to get back to 100%. By Tuesday, 18 months after being at 17%, the dam was at 200%! As a result of months of rain, not even the dam could keep back the floods anymore.

Tuesday morning, Jan 11, with pouring rain, I took the kids to Chipmunk’s, a large indoor kids play area. After a fun morning of playing, sliding, and climbing, they made an announcement about roads closing and flooding. I thought maybe we should get in the van and head home. As we were leaving, Emma called to say they were evacuating the Central Business District (CBD) and she was taking the train home. As we pulled into the wall of inching traffic, the radio announced that Strathpine was one of the towns that everyone should evacuate to avoid the rising creek. We managed to outrace the flood home and it only took an hour-and-half to get home to find Emma was already home. I headed to the grocery store to get some supplies and many of the shelves were already bare. Wednesday morning Emma went to the store to get some more food and it took her an hour-and-half to get through the checkout line.

The Brisbane river was rising slowly and they were predicting it would surpass the flood level of 1974. The peak was predicted for 0400 on Thursday morning for Brisbane. We woke up Wednesday to a beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately it was too late to stop the coming flood waters. Paul and Michelle's apartment was just at the expected peak level so they hightailed it out on Wednesday as the power was switched off to come stay with us. Our suburb is far enough north of the river and high enough that we didn’t get any flood water. We watched in awe the footage of things being washed down the river, including floating restaurants washed away. Thursday was another gloriously sunny day and the only good news was the waters had not reached the record level of 1974. Unfortunately huge swaths of Brisbane were underwater by then. The underground car parks in Emma’s building which is right next to the river were completely flooded and the whole CBD was a ghost town. The scenes of devastation are heartbreaking. The waters have started to recede and the entire city has come out to begin the cleanup. The CBD is still closed and it might be another week until Emma can get back to work at her office. Some people are heading to the firm’s office in Melbourne so they can do some work and Emma will work between home and a temporary serviced office until the CBD is up and running again. One of the stories from the flood is a goldfish that was flushed out of his bowl when the flood waters flooded the house and after the waters receded a couple days later he ended up in the bathtub. He has been renamed “Lucky”. The waters completely inundated some neighborhoods with water over the roofs and up into the second story of many homes. Some shopping centres were completely underwater and SunCorp stadium, the major stadium in town looked more like a location for a swim meet than a football game. There are still many bare shelves in the stores as 75% of Queensland has been affected by flooding and much the infrastructure is flooded or damaged. Paul and Michelle, John and Julia went home Friday when the power was turned back on at their complex. They were fortunate that they had no flooding, not even their underground car park. We had a fun couple nights flood sleepover, but that was tempered with the fury and might of the flood waters we saw going on throughout Brisbane and the surrounding valleys. The clean up will take months and years.

In the midst of the events going on around us, I finally heard from the Australian embassy in Washington DC that my visa was finally all set. In order to issue my resident visa, I need to leave the country for at least three business days. The closest and cheapest option for me is Vanuatu, so I am heading off for a little holiday by myself on Tuesday, Jan 18 for 5 days. Emma will be able to now report on how it feels to be a full time working single mum!

One last note on rumours that I am somehow connected to “unseasonable weather events” as the Omanis so politely called Cyclone Gonu. It is true we survived Cyclone Gonu in 2007 back in Oman, the biggest storm to ever hit the country, just a few days before Ellie was born. And now we have survived some of the biggest floods to ever hit Brisbane. We did have one of the quietest hurricane seasons they have ever had while we were in the Caymans. It has been an unforgettable week and I am inspired by the spirit of Brisbane and its people as they have jumped right back up after the great flood of 2011.

Christmas for boys and girls

2011-01-07T17:51:00.000+10:00

On Tuesday, Dec 21, the kids and I made the 1000 km drive down to Sydney again. We did it faster this time than last September, the kids are getting better at bladder control and I had the super secret weapon, “Toy Story 3” for the DVD player. The kids love the movie and we only had a few episodes of “how much longer” and “are we there yet?” We took the Pacific Highway down and stopped for lunch and some playtime in Coff’s Harbour again. We stayed with the Creech’s again and had a wonderful time. Katherine (Aunty Kat) was down from Brisbane for Christmas and had brought her two dogs. The kids were delighted to have three dogs around (Bonnie lives there). Emma was originally due to fly down Thursday evening after work but had to fly down to Sydney on the Wednesday morning to close a deal in Sydney. While she had two crazy days at work, we were glad to get to see her when she came in late and before she headed off in the morning.

The Christmas spirit was in the air and the kids could not get enough. They were singing carols non-stop (“Jingle Bells”,”Rudolph”, and “We wish you a Merry Christmas” are the three they know!) The kids helped Emma make a gingerbread house and wrapped a lot of presents. On Christmas Eve James and partner Heidi flew in from Brisbane, (lots of visitors from Brisbane) and some friends of the Creech’s came over and brought their two boys who were close in age to Alex and Ellie. After meeting the kids Ellie then asked “Where is the girl?” She can’t understand why some families don’t have a girl for her to play with. It is always interesting to see the differences between boys and girls. Alex was quickly racing around the garden with the boys playing all sorts of games. Ellie won’t play with kids until there has been a formal declaration of friendship as she runs after kids asking “Will you be my friend?” or “Will you play with me?” Of course the boys don’t stay still long enough to hear the question or answer. Ellie finally joined in and by 2130 she was so worn out she begged to go to bed. She put out some carrots and water for the reindeer and was out. The boys finally left around 2200 and after putting some cookies and milk out for Santa, Alex was finally asleep. The master plan was a late night might buy us some sleep the next morning. A few more hours of “grown up chores” and the grown ups were finally off to bed.

The kids were sleeping on the floor in our room as there was a full house. We told Alex he couldn’t go out when he first woke up as it was too early. He lay there singing Christmas carols until we finally relented. While we were trying to awaken some of the other grown ups, Alex had a peak through the door into the living room and quickly reported Santa had brought lots of presents. The kids were overjoyed with the presents that Santa had brought for them. They were impressed that they had received most of the items on their list to Santa. It took most of the morning to admire all their gifts and there were only two kids in the house! The rest of the Sydney clan was over for lunch with the Sargeants and Mrs J all in attendance. We had a wonderful lunch outside, it was so warm we needed to put up some extra shade, with lots of festive music and decorations. With more present excitement building, after lunch we exchanged gifts and there was another wave of excitement for the little kiddies. Most of the grownups were now ready for a much needed nap. The kids of course were too hyped to sleep so we broke out the slip and slide. While Ellie took a while to get the idea, Alex slipped and slid so much that by the end of the afternoon the slide was ready for the bin.

The rest of our time in Sydney was just as much fun. We went into Sydney for another visit to the sharks at the Aquarium and another ride on the monorail train. Another day we took the ferry into Darling Harbour and went to the Sydney Wildlife World, and a ride on the carousel. The highlight was probably our boat trip around the harbour on a yacht. Some friends of the Creechs’ have a yacht on the harbour and they took us all out for a trip around the harbour with a stop for a wonderful lunch at the Royal Sydney Yacht Club. The kids really enjoyed being on the boat with Captain Greg and Janine. With all the adults around, Emma and I went out for a night out at dinner and the movies. We planned on seeing “The Kings Speech” but didn’t realize it was opening night so we couldn’t get a seat. We saw the only other option “Megamind”. Ironic that the first movie we have seen on our own since Cayman and we see a cartoon! Our last day we went out to the Sargeant’s spread for a swim and a BBQ. The kids had a great time swimming and playing with their three dogs. The loved having so much space to run around and explore.

On Dec 30 we headed north along the Pacific Highway to Yamba, a wonderful town right where the Clarence river meets the ocean. We had four days at the Blue Dolphin resort. We were staying in a cabin right by the pool. There were also lots of campers and there were some serious camping set ups. Some of the sites had Christmas trees and Christmas lights, refrigerators, and most other comforts of home. We spent most of the time in the pool and on the water slides. The kids just loved spending all day in the pool. They also got to feed the pelicans, build a sand castle in the sand castle competition and spend a couple evenings playing on the beach. One afternoon Ellie was “a bit tired” and wanted a break from the pool. Alex didn;t want to get out so Ellie and Emma had a girls afternoon out to town to check out the cute shops. As they were getting in the car, Ellie asked Emma if Alex and I were coming too, and Emma said no we weren’t coming. Ellie replied: “Good, the boys bug me sometimes.” New Year’s Eve once again found us asleep well before the fireworks. Apparently I even missed the loud cheering and shouting and horns at midnight. We were in northern New South Wales which is right now one hour ahead on Queensland time. Since there were so many people at the park that were from Queensland, apparently there was another loud celebration at midnight Queensland time which I slept right through also. Monday January 3 was time to head home. It was only a three hour drive home but we took our time to explore some small beach towns and then had a picnic lunch in Brunswick Heads, another town where a river meets the coast. After lunch we went swimming in the brown river. It is brown because of the tea tree oil that seeps into the river farther up stream. My skin is looking wonderful now! It was nice to get home after two weeks away. In spite of all the rain that Queensland had while we were gone, our house was fine. Unfortunately our mailbox is not waterproof, so some mail was soggy beyond repair.

The kids are so hyped up on Christmas that they are still singing carols, asking to watch the Christmas specials of all their fav shows, and playing Christmas everyday. Other than that, we are all back in our routine. Alex has been at swim camp this week as it is still school holiday season down under. The kids are back at pre-school and in a few weeks will come the big move when Ellie moves up to Kindergarten to join Alex. Since the school cut off date here in Queensland in June 30, Alex and Ellie will be in the same school year! We have enjoyed everyone’s cards, letters and emails. We are hoping that historic rain and flooding here in Queensland and the historic drubbing of Australia by England in the Ashes are not portends of the year to come.

Wiggle Time!

2010-12-19T14:16:00.000+10:00

Parking:                             $10
Tickets for family of 4:       $135
Dinosaur tail, feather sword, popcorn and drinks:     $59
Look on Alex and Ellie’s face when they saw the
actual Wiggles drive out on stage in the Big Red Car: $ Priceless

For more than five years we have lived in the cultural hinterlands. Not many bands, shows or other events came through Muscat or the Caymans. (The only shows we have seen are school shows where I teach.) Ever since Alex first started wiggling before he could walk, we dreamed about how cool it would be to take him to the Wiggles. They were never anywhere near us when we visited England or the States. I think one of the first things Emma did when she got here back in June was to buy tickets for all of us to see the Wiggles. Saturday morning at about 0930 we were sitting in a long line of traffic waiting to get into the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. The kids loved the show, but I think Emma and I did more singing and dancing than they did. It is hard to not know all the words after years of watching the Wiggles on TV!

It was a busy weekend of entertainment which was cut short by all the rain and storms we have been having. On Friday afternoon the kids had their Christmas concert at their school. They performed two songs they have been practicing for weeks now. They remembered all the words to “Catch a falling star” and their favorite; “Rudolph”. When Santa came in Alex was the very first kid to run up to Santa and give him a hug. Ellie, as usual, was so terrified she was in tears and couldn’t even look. Santa had presents for all the kids but as we were heading home Alex was checking out the roof wondering where the sleigh and reindeer were hiding. That night Emma had her work party at the showgrounds. They had lots of the fair games and food open for an unusual office party. She came home with bags of candy floss (cotton candy) and other toys and snacks.

Saturday morning we were off to the Wiggles. Saturday night we had the Swarts in to babysit. The kids had been excited for days that Cian and Niamh were coming over for a sleepover. It is easy to forget how quirky and bizarre your own kids are. While we were out they had some misunderstanding with the bath. Alex believes he has discovered that salt water doesn’t make any cuts he may have hurt. To prevent bath-time wars, we get the salt shaker out and pretend to shake the salt into the tub. With the top on, no salt goes in the bath. The kids don’t notice and are happy. You forget that this might seem strange to outsiders. As they were getting the kids in the bath, Alex and Ellie started explaining how they always have salt in their bath. After a long search they found the salt in the kitchen and actually added salt to the bath. No harm, but we forget how weird that may seem to the outside world. Ellie knows what she wants and is not afraid to dictate her demands. Her bedtime diktat is “milk, in Tigger Pooh cup, warmed up”. Once again there are a raft of unspoken details that go with fulfilling this order. They did finally piece together enough to satisfy Ellie and get her off to bed.

With the kids in safe and fun hands, Emma and I were off to our first real show since we lived in London. It has been so long I can’t remember whether our last show was either Erasure or the Finn Brothers, back in a place where we could go see all types of shows anytime. Five years wait was worth it as we went into town to see the Hoodoo Gurus at the Hi Fi Bar. I last saw them in 1992 in Perth. They were great back then and we had a blast this time. The Gurus have just finished up a world tour over the last year and were still full of energy. “The Break” opened up for them. They are made up of three members of Midnight Oil and the bassist from “Violent Femmes” They play instrumental surf music. They were a good warm up and very interesting. The whole building was shaking to the Gurus and even the next morning my ears were still ringing. We really enjoyed the chance to get out and do something. We are feeling so spoiled with all the choices for culture we have a drawer full of tickets already for the next few months. The next day we had tickets to see the Pretenders and Blondie at Sirromet Winery, but because of all the rain we have had, and more predicted for Sunday afternoon, the show was cancelled. It might have been for the best as we were quite worn out by Sunday afternoon. Lots more concerts to see and plenty of time.

On Tuesday, Dec 21, I will be driving down to Sydney again with the kids. We will do the 1000km trip again in one day. Emma will be flying down on the 23d to join us. We will be at the Creech’s for a week over Christmas. On our way back home we will stop for a few days holiday in the Coff’s Harbour area for some family relaxing at the beach. Hopefully we will be home on Jan 3. We hope everyone has a great Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years. We have enjoyed all the Christmas cards we have received and look forward to catching up again in 2011.

xmas train

2010-12-10T22:20:00.000+10:00

Alex and Ellie with their new Christmas train. Of Course, Uncle Brad was the inspiration last year at Christmas with his Christmas tree train.

Straddie

2010-12-08T15:30:00.001+10:00

We have been keeping busy the last couple months enjoying Brisbane. Although Halloween is not a big event down under yet, it is growing. We went to a Halloween party at Aunty Kat’s house for a great BBQ with lots of decorations. The kids both went dressed as Pirates, they still love their pirate heritage from the Caymans. Instead of trick-or-treating, Kat’s partner Ben hid candy in the yard and the kids went on a treasure candy hunt and found most of the candy before the dogs could find it! The next night, Halloween night, we went to a Halloween party at a Kindergarden that was organized by an American friend. There was lots of Halloween music, face painting, bouncy castle and lots of other fun games and crafts and everyone. Emma and some friends went on a cemetery ghost tour on the Friday night and learned lots about the local area although they didn’t see any ghosts.

The kids are enjoying school and their weekly swimming lessons. Alex is a fish and making great progress. Ellie enjoys being in the pool but is not as keen on doing what other people want her to do. We have tried to explain that is how she will get better but she prefer to do what she wants! She takes part in some of the class activities and is slowly making progress. The better news is the kids are slowly getting used to colder water and are spending more and more time playing in the other pools around even though it is not bathwater warm like their lesson pool. Yesterday Alex’s kindy class had its end of year ceremony. Most of the kids in his class will be going to big kid school in January when the school year here starts. Alex still has one more year before he goes to big kid school. Based on the date cut off here, Alex and Ellie will both be in the same school year when they start big kid school in Jan, 2012. Most of the boys in Alex’s class said they wanted to be superheros when they grow up, there were a couple pilots and Alex did his lttle presentation with his train and said he wanted to be a train driver when he grows up. He rotates between train driver, bus driver and rock star when you ask him what he wants to be. Almost all the girls in Alex’s class wanted to be ballerinas, while the remaining two wanted to be mermaids. In Jan Ellie will move up and join Alex in his class.

In Nov, Emma’s mum Julie came for a two week visit. The kids loved spending time with nana and had her suitcases open looking for their loot before we could even get them in the door. We had lots of dinners with Tonks’ family friends. There are a lot of family friends in the area and it was nice to have lots of time to catch up, reminisce, and meet all these people I have heard about. The Swarts live not too far away here in Brisbane. Alex and Ellie adore spending time with their kids Niamh (13) and Cian (11?). They just love playing with the big kids and are always asking to have them over. They will be coming to babysit for us this weekend and the kids are really looking forward to it. We all went with Julie to Niamh’s primary school to see her as Willy Wonka in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Alex and Ellie kept waving at Niamh and were very well behaved at their first live show.

While Julie was here we all went on a little three day holiday to Straddie (North Stradbroke Island). The kids thought it was great that we could drive our car onto the ferry to get to the island. They were excited to get out of the car and climb up to the cafe and lookout as we made the 40 min crossing. We had an amazing apartment on the north-east coast in Point Lookout. We stayed at the Whale Watch Resort. The apartment was up on the cliffs and we had a spectacular view down to the beach and south along 18 mile beach. (We thought seven mile beach in Cayman was a big beach) We will have to go back again with a 4-wheel-drive vehicle so we can go drive down and explore 18 mile beach. We could walk into the little town of Point Lookout to have a bite to eat and enjoy the views from there. The surf was quite big on that side of the island so the kids didn’t get a chance to try out their new boogie boards in the ocean. They still had a blast playing on the beach and swimming in the pool. On the last day before leaving we went to Brown Lake. It is a beautiful lake and the kids had a blast swimming in the lake. It reminded us of our Little Sand Lake with the reeds all around the edge and the peace and quiet. We had another exciting ferry ride back to the mainland.

On the weekends we have lots to explore. We have found a lovely beach down on the Gold Coast on Currumbin Creek. This past Sunday we went to the Ginger Factory up on the Sunshine Coast. We went primarily to see Santa’s Workshop and the puppet display. The kids loved the puppet display, not quite as amazing as the Santa’s Workshop display we saw in Minneapolis last Christmas, but very nice. Alex did his best good-boy smile and had his picture taken with Santa. Ellie is still terrified of Santa and even refuses to look at Santa. We then had a nice lunch in the cafe and went on the cane train through the factory grounds. The kids love any train and really enjoyed it. The wet season is in full swing here and it rained all weekend. Fortunately we didn’t let the rain interfere with our Christmas outing and we even managed to stay relatively dry on the train ride in the open-sided carriages.

The house is all decorated and surprisingly, we may have the best outside light display on the street! The kids are so excited. They have written their letters to Santa and we delivered them to him at the Ginger Factory. Alex delivered Ellie’s as she refused to go near Santa. Some of the items on Alex’s list were a train that carries cars, a truck that carries cars, and an airplane that carries cars, people and aliens! It warms my heart that the kids enjoy the old classic Christmas shows. Gumby and Pokey Christmas DVD, Rudolph, Frosty, and O Christmas Tree play almost non-stop now. Perhaps the best holiday news is I have the last piece of paper needed to get my visa so hopefully I will have the visa before the end of Jan as the Australian embassy in DC is closed until the end of Dec.

Sydney road trip

2010-10-07T11:09:00.000+10:00

A couple weeks ago we decided to head down to Sydney to see friends and family, some we haven’t seen since we were last in Sydney six years ago and some who visited us while we were in Oman. Emma couldn’t take many days off from work so I drove down on my own with the kids. Early Wednesday morning, we packed up the van, made sure we had lots of DVD’s and headed out. Our trusty GPS assured us it was 1000 km (620m) to the Creech’s house in Sydney. We had a wonderful drive down the Coastal Highway and the kids were very good. Despite the name of the road, you only get about two small glimpses of the ocean. It is a really pretty drive and the kids were kept very entertained by their DVD’s. With wireless headphones for them, I can listen to what I like and we are all happy. We made a few stops for fuel, food, toilet, and to change the DVD. As we went through Coff’s Harbour, Alex was asleep and Ellie was engrosed in her DVD so she paid no notice when I tried to point out the large banana and decided there was no point in stopping this time. Am sure this won’t be the last time we do the drive. Our total trip was 14 hours and we pulled into the Creech’s just in time for a snack and bedtime.

On Thursday, the kids and I took the Rivercat ferry into Sydney and then the slow ferry out to Manly. The kids love riding on big boats and enjoyed the gorgeous views all along the way. We had a lovely picnic lunch by the beach then walked around to Shelly beach where the kids had fun playing and running in the sand. It was another fun couple of ferry trips back home. Emma flew in on Thursday evening after she had finished work.

Friday we met up with Emma’s good friend Renee, who had visited us in Oman, and her kids Will and baby Emma and went to Taronga Zoo. I had never been before and we had a fabulous time. The zoo is on a steep hill across the harbour from Sydney. As you walk around and look at the animals you have spectacular views of Sydney Harbour in the background. The kids loved the elephants, giraffes, gorillas and many of the other animals. Once again they loved seeing the snakes and even got to touch a snake for the first time. The seal show was a lot of fun and watching the seals and penguins swimming around was a huge hit. When we got to the bottom of the hill we rode the cable car back to the top. This was the kids first ride in a cable car and they loved being able to see all the animals from above as well as the views of the harbour!

Saturday was more relaxing as we had a big BBQ at the Creech’s. We got to see the rest of the clan, Mrs J, Uncle Daryl and Aunty Lynn for the first time in six years. We had lovely warm weather and enjoyed a lovely BBQ, lots of catching up and chasing the soccer ball in the backyard with Alex and Ellie.

Sunday morning we stopped by to visit a friend and former colleague of Emma’s from Oman for a quick tea then off to Renee’s for a huge brunch. The kids had fun playing with Will and baby Emma and all their toys and trampoline, while us grown ups had a few minutes of peace to chat. Renee’s aunty Sue was there and we hadn’t seen her since she was in Oman with Renee visiting us. Ironicaly Renee had to head up to Brisbane for work so we headed off the Bronte Beach with Aunty Sue, Will, and baby Emma. Alex and Will spent the afternoon chasing the waves and Ellie found a friend and enjoyed digging in the sand. The surf was really pounding and it was rad watching the surfers riding the huge overhead waves. Alex tells us he wants to be a surfer boy.

Monday morning we headed back into the city on the RiverCat. Since our trip to Disney World in March Alex has been obsessed with monorail trains. Fortunately Sydney has a monorail so we couldn’t pass up a chance to ride another one. Then we went to the Sydney Aquarium. Ellie was too scared to have her picture taken in the fake shark mouth at the entrance, but as we walked through the first few exhibits all she wanted to know was where the sharks were. She was running as we got to the shark tanks and they both thought the sharks were awesome! There were some huge ones. The kids enjoyed the ferry ride home once again. Emma had to fly out Monday night, no time to drive back up with us!

Early Tuesday morning I headed out with the van packed and the kids as we headed home. The plan was to take our time and do the return trip north in two days. We headed inland and drove up Bucketts Way, Thunderbolts Way and the New England Highway. The scenery was even more spectacular than the drive down. Much of the way we were in the mountains at over 1000m elevation. The kids were really good again. We found a nice motel in Glen Innes. Staying in a little motel may have been the highlight of the trip for the kids. It still amazes me what things they get excited about. We were just a block from downtown so wandered through town and stopped awhile in the wonderful park by the river. We grabbed some pizza for dinner then had an early bedtime.

We headed out early Wednesday morning and went off road into the bush in search of Emmaville. Most people know of the famous Emmaville, Minnesota, not far from where my parents live, so of course we had to check out how the Australian version compares. It is actually much larger then Emmaville, Minnesota. The scenery as we drove on the very bumpy dirt road through several small towns and lots of farms was fabulous. I did get a bit nervous wondering if we were on the correct road as the trusty GPS was no help and I had no phone coverage. We were on the correct road, drove through several more small towns and then came back out on the New England Highway just where I hoped we would. We had an uneventful drive the rest of the way home with lots more pretty scenery as we drove through wine country and some more mountains.

It was a classic road trip and we got to see lots of the country between here and Sydney . It was really good to see so many friends again that we haven’t seen in a long time. The kids proved they are game for big road trips as long as we have enough DVD’s and don’t run out of batteries for the headphones. Australia is a big place so we have lots of road trips planned.

Brizzie

2010-10-05T14:23:00.000+10:00

Many people have commented on my correspondence since arriving in Australia that it sounds like we are tourists! Well I can confirm that I am a tourist. I am here on a tourist visa so am making the best of it. My paperwork to get my resident visa is all in, including all the extras that they don’t mention you need when you first submit your application. We have no idea how long it is going to take so I am playing the tourist role as best I can.

We had a good trip over and I highly recommend Air New Zealand. The food was excellent, the service was friendly, the entertainment systems did a fantastic job of keeping the kids entertained, and this was all for less than half the price of any other airline. They were very friendly and helpful with the kids and it was far easier than I had feared. It didn’t get off to the best start when only a few minutes into our trip, Alex peed all over his shorts while we were having lunch in the Minneapolis airport and some quick math had me worried that I hadn’t packed nearly enough spare clothes in our carry-on. We didn’t have any more issues though. We had a few hour layover in San Fransisco and it was nice to look out the windows and I could see our old apartment building just up the hill! Our pushchair didn’t make the the plane change in Auckland but it was delivered later that day. It was very nice to see Emma again after two months!

The kids and I have really enjoyed exploring and seeing all the sights in Brisbane. There are so many everyday experiences in “civilization” (Oman and Cayman don’t count) that we have missed and are so exciting for the kids. One of the highlights is taking the train into the city and then riding the CityCat up and down the river. We are only four train stops from the centre of the city and a short walk from Central Station takes you to the river. It is a beautiful city and the kids love just riding up and down the river in the big CityCats. Sometimes we even get to meet Emma for lunch. Her office is right next to the river.

One of the highlights of September was the Riverfire celebration on the river in Brisbane. It is a huge firework display all up-and-down the river. Emma’s office is on the 39th floor right by the river. Her firm had some food and drinks in a conference room and we had fantastic views of the fireworks all along the river. The kids oohed and aahed the entire time. The fireworks went on for more than 20 minutes. The highlight of the display is the dump and burn by a F-111. They dump the fuel out the back between the two engines and it creates a huge fireball across the sky. They say this will be the last time as the Australian Air Force is retiring the F-111 and moving to the F/A-18. Check out the short version or a longer version.

We have been to the Australia Zoo twice already. (Home of the Crocodile Hunter.) The kids enjoy getting to feed and pet the kangaroos and koalas. They also get to feed the elephants. ( Ellie is “too scared” to feed the elephants but likes to play with the snakes.) The zoo has mostly Australian animals. One of the highlights is the croc show in the Crocoseum. The kids really enjoy it and it is impressive seeing the big crocs leap and chomp on the meat.

We have been up to the beach at Caloundra and Manly, South Bank several times, Mt Coot-tha, and many other sites. Brisbane has a huge number of parks. Many days I take the kids to a new park to play on the play equipment or ride their bikes or scooters. They just have a blast as every new park has different climbing frames and other fun play options. They have been so deprived that when we first got here they thought the bike racks were part of the equipment. There are also pools everywhere. Spring has just started so the weather is warming up. Alex and Ellie are very warm water swimmers so it is just getting to swim season for them. Last week they had a great time at Newmarket Pool. This week on Wednesday they start their first swimming lessons. It is also where I swim on the two days a week that the kids are at nursery.

Our shipment was delivered a few weeks ago and we are mostly unpacked now. Just about everything made it OK. For the first time in all our moves, even including our move from San Fransisco where we packed everything ourselves, we had some broken plates, pictures, cookie jar and some other small items. Australia is very strict on inspecting incoming shipments. After customs checked ours at the port we were told they had found a Christmas wreath made out of twigs and some other Christmas decoration made out of pine-cones. Our options were to pay $250 to have them sprayed or $25 to have them destroyed. Since we couldn’t even recall what these items were we are now without two of our Christmas decorations. Every move we have made since we left San Fransisco we have changed standard voltage. We went from the 110V US, to 220V England and then Oman, then to 110V Cayman, and now to 220V Australia. This has caused major issues with our electrical devices. Some are dual voltage and we don’t need to worry about, family have received lots of hand-me-downs from us as we leave, and recently we have used a few voltage converters for some of our more expensive items that we didn’t want to buy again. It can get hard to keep track of which items are which and we have already had a small mishap when I blew out our electric toothbrush charger. I thought it was one of our dual voltage devices but I obviously didn’t check it well enough. Our other issue is plugs. Why do there have to be so many different types? The only break we got was Oman and England have the same outlets. (Although most electric devices sold in Oman come with a continental European plug.) We now have a wide variety of plug types on our devices throughout the house. We have had to ship in a large number of adaptors from the US as they are much cheaper, even including shipping, than they are here. The challenges faced by global nomads like us are really difficult as you can see!! ( just joking, and we wouldn’t trade the traipsing around the globe for anything!)

We have successfully tested the health system. One Saturday while out at the shops Emma took Ellie to the toilet. As Ellie tells it “ mummy didn’t hold the door and it pinched my hand”. There was a automatic door and Ellie likes to drag her hand along walls and doors and it closed on her left ring finger. It pulled her entire nail right out, even the part that is usually under the skin and it was hanging on her finger. We took her to the doctor and without any anesthesia he pulled it off. Other than a couple tears right after the door shut on her, she was very brave and is not afraid of telling even the doctor or nurse what she will or will not do, or allow them to do. Her nail is growing back nicely.

There are a few other daily activities that most of you take for granted but are highlights for the kids now that we live in civilization. In Oman and Cayman there are no postmen. The mail is all delivered to a work PO box. A highlight of coming home in the afternoon after a day exploring here are the kids’ shouts of “post, post” as they rush to the post box on our front gate. Even better is if we get to see the post man ride his motorcycle down the sidewalk, with his bright yellow visibility jacket on, putting the post in the postboxes at the houses on the street. Even on Sundays when there is no mail delivery, the kids still enjoy running down to the box to check anyway. Another is the gabage collection. In Oman and Cayman, all rubbish was put in a large dumpster at the end of the street and was usually collected very early in the morning. Here the garbage truck and recycling trucks come down the street on Wednesday mornings. We can’t go out early on Wednesdays as the kids love to watch the truck from the front balcony as it stops in front of each house, the hydraulic lift (looks like a large claw) comes out, picks up our large green rubbish bin, lifts it up and dumps it in the truck, then slowly lowers it back down. The trucks look just like they do in their favorite movie from the summer, “Toy Story 3” and they compare them every Wednesday and relive how similar they are for me.

Much as I am really enjoying Brizzie, there are a few very serious issues that I have come across here that really worry me.

Beetroot: This is a vegetable that the quaint locals believe needs to go on everything. Now I may not be a vegetable guy, but I come from the US where our constitution gives everyone the right to eat whatever vegetables they want. There are some foods that beetroot just does not belong on. The beloved hamburger, served in more places around the world than any other food, other than the accompanying french fries, ( I know I have travelled the world in search of my favorite food) has been done in many ingenious, bizarre and sometimes unusual ways. Most I have enjoyed or could see why others would enjoy them that way Aussies have crossed the hamburger Rubicon when they decided that the standard Aussie burger would include beetroot, even in the hamburger standard around the world, McDonalds. I am not sure I can raise my kids for long in a land that believes beetroot and hamburgers are a national dish.

Australian Rules Football: I am really enjoying watching the Australian Rules Football (AFL). Even in the early days of ESPN they would show a little back in the US and my friends and I always thought it was chaotic, unusual, and somehow compelling to watch. I have watched more on TV since arriving as it is the number one sport in certain parts of the country (mostly Victoria). A week ago they had their championship game, the AFL version of the Super Bowl. I was in Melbourne back in 1999 when the Grand Final, as it is called, was played and can vouch for the hoopla and excitement that goes with the game. Last Saturday the Collingwood Magpies played a really exciting game against the St Kilda Saints in the home of AFL, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). After 80 minutes the game was tied for the first time in AFL Grand Final history since 1977. There are many sports where ties are part of the game, soccer being one which is frequently discussed in the land whose constitution strongly frowns on ties. Even soccer has a means to settle a championship game when it ends in a tie. You may argue whether it is the best way, and soccer has tried many different formats, but at least at the end of the championship, there is one winner. Australia is a great sporting nation, one whose passion for soccer trails well behind even the US. You would assume they would be just as desirous of having a winner. As I wondered what the AFL system was to decide the tie, I was shocked to my core, yes, I considered repaking my bags and moving again. What do you do when the championship game ends in a tie? The Super Bowl tied at the end of the game? They go home and come back again the next Saturday and play the game all over again! Large chunks of life have to be rescheduled, even horse races in Victoria had to be rescheduled as a result. Supporters have to go wait in line overnight again to get tickets for the next match. This raised the question to my Aussie friends in the know, what happens if the second game ends in a tie? Do they come back the next week and keep playing every Saturday until someone wins? Fortunately if the second game ends in a tie they play some form of overtime until a winner is decided. The rematch was a blowout for the Magpies as I am sure they didn’t feel like rescheduling their holidays and weddings again.

Rugby shorts: It is obvious that you should wear rugby shorts when you play rugby. Much as I am enjoying watching the rugby, Rugby League is the top sport in other parts of the country, even someone with as tenuous a grip on the rules as I have, I know rugby shorts don’t belong off the pitch. It seems the national dress for many Aussie men is to wander around town in rugby shorts and a singlet. For those of you that don’t know, these rugby shorts are short shorts. They are like the original jogging shorts everyone wore in the 70’s when jogging hit it big, or the short shorts basketball players in the NBA used to wear in the 70’s. It is disturbing seeing so many men in short shorts and a singlet everywhere you turn: shops, parks, city streets, restaurants.

In spite of these serious issues, we are loving being in Brisbane. The weather is getting warmer as we move into spring and the kids are enjoying having so many places and things to explore. I will try to be more current with the updates. Come on down and visit anytime!!

Fun at the lake

2010-08-09T12:40:00.001+10:00

Our last week in Cayman we stayed in a vacation rental in West Bay. Jeff’s Resort is a really nice place. They are houses and there is a huge yard with chickens running around. The kids love their chickens so had fun their last week since they were already out of school. Eric worked the last week and managed to get everything wrapped up. It was much easier wrapping business up than it had been in Oman. It was sad to say goodbye to all the kids and friends at school but we didn’t have much time to reflect. On Sunday, July 4, we were off to Minnesota to see the family.

We have all enjoyed our five weeks hanging out at the lake with family. The kids are exhausted at the end of every day after chasing around with their cousins from the Kirby and Hodgins clan. Playing with the toys and dressing up in the basement, swinging, playing on the beach, running all over the place and even smores by the campfire keep them going until well after bedtime! Alex has only been for one swim as he proclaims the water is too cold, so Ellie hasn’t even really tried. I think the water is really nice and even watching all the other kids swimming can’t coax them in. The weather has been really nice, not too hot and not too much rain. We did have a tornado warning one night. The kids were asleep so I carried them down into the basement. A couple hours later after the all clear I carried them back upstairs to their beds in the library. They stayed asleep the entire time so don’t even remember their first tornado warning! We make room in our daily routine to go to the Dorset House for ice cream everyday. Eric loves his milkshakes and Alex is reliable everyday with “vanilla in a cup, no sprinkles”. Ellie is always having something else, different flavour, cup or cone, always with sprinkles. Her favorite is the clown sundae. All the girls at the ice cream counter know the kids and they love sitting on the old-fashioned stools at the counter and watching the girls work behind the counter. Ellie insists when she gets bigger she wants to work behind the counter.

We went with the Grandma and the Kirbys to the Hubbard County Fair. The kids love seeing all the animals and eating lots of junk. They even went on their first ferris wheel ride. We all went to Bemidji to see “Toy Story 3” in 3D. This was Alex and Ellie’s first movie in a theatre. They loved the movie and were really good. They took off the 3D glasses half way through but didn’t mind. They are still quoting lines from the film and asking questions about different parts of the film. I loved it too so we can recommend it to people of all ages. We have also been to the Logging Camp twice for breakfast and the kids enjoyed the whole experience, especially seeing the chickens and eating at big tables with unbreakable dishes.

We have all been to Zhateau Zorba’s twice on a Sunday afternoon to watch grandma Gwen and papa Denny with the Upper Mississippians. ( The kids refer to it as “The Dancing Restaurant”) The first sunday the world cup football final was going on so there was double the entertainment. The kids love the music and the pizza. The second time we went down on the Hodgins pontoon boat. Alex and Ellie just love being out on the pontoon boat and Uncle Brad is an awesome captain, making sure everyone has a great time. We have had a fantastic time getting to see so many of our wonderful family: besides Grandma Gwen and Papa Denny, we have had a fab time with Herman, Patty, Melanie, Jay, Tricia, Jimmy, Barbara, Matt, Tam, Brad, Roro, Maia, Reese, Siri, Leah, Elyette, Jona (I saw him for just a couple minutes), Benji, Bronwyn, Luca, and Buzz. Everyone has been so helpful and we can’t wait to see you all again somewhere and soon!

It hasn’t been all fun and games. While we are having fun at the lake, Emma has been working hard in Brisbane. Besides being really busy at work again, she has managed to find a rental house for us, furnish what is not coming in our shipment, find a minivan, and get out with family and friends quite a lot. She also finished up Ellie’s Australian passport which we now have in hand. Ellie has now joined Alex as not only being American, but also Australian.

A couple weeks ago Benji came down with Lyme disease. I think last year only about 39,000 people in the US came down with Lyme disease. Not many days after he was diagnosed Ellie started getting red blotches. At first I thought it might be an allergy again as she has several allergic skin reactions to unknown things. More developed and finally the owner of the Ice Cream place even started saying Ellie should be checked for Lyme disease. The red bulls-eyes on the her skin were increasing so we decided to take her to the doctor. Friday was our last chance before the weekend but Eric was driving the Kirbys to Minneapolis as we needed to have the van back up north. Grandma Gwen took Ellie off to the doctor. The doctor pretty quickly confirmed Ellie had a classic case of Lyme. (The doctor said ten years ago she almost saw no cases at all in this area and now she sees cases almost daily!) State law requires a blood test even when it is obvious. Since she is so young, instead of having her go to the lab, the lab sent three people over to the doctor’s to draw the blood. They sent three people because they assumed they would be needed to hold the little girl down as she screamed and writhed. She lay there quietly while the put the elastic strap on her arm and drew the blood from her arm. There were no tears and no screaming, the extra people were not needed at all. Ellie even told the doctor how much she liked her pony tail and commented on someone else’s nice shoes! The next morning we could have used the extra people as Ellie screamed and refused to take her antibiotics. We have worked out a solution and she eagerly takes her medicine now. All that was required was to give her very small spoonfuls, so what should be two spoonfuls of medicine now takes 10, but she smiles the whole time! The red bulls-eyes on her skin are long gone and she should be fine after completing her medicine.

I have really enjoyed spending so much time with my kiddies. We are having a great time but the kids have initiated a new form of family time that I don’t know I am so keen on. I now refer to it as family poo time. Any time any of us has to use the toilet, everyone else is required to come. (This is not at my insistence, but at theirs.) We have family discussions on all sorts of topics while we sit in the toilet waiting for one or the other to finish their business. Fortunately here in the States, there are a lot of large family and handicapped toilets so we have space. It is not nearly as much fun when we spend our family poo time on the airplane toilets. In an attempt to make my blog more interactive, I have a literary competition for all our loyal readers. (I am sure that number is going down as I spend more time discussing poo!) I believe there is a saying “A family that plays together, stays together”. My challenge is to complete the new Block age -old wisdom. “A family that poos together,...............”

I have been married to my lovely wife for just about 8 years now (2 days short) and we have lived in four different countries. ( It is a good thing I got out of the military so I wouldn’t have to move around so much!) We won’t be together to celebrate our 8 years on August 10. The good news is that on August 11 we will start year number 9 together in our fifth country. Alex, Ellie and I fly out of Minneapolis to Brisbane on Monday afternoon, Aug 9, and are scheduled to arrive in Brisbane on Wed morning, August 11. Wish us luck, I am going to need it on the trip....catch you on the other side!

Categories of Poo

2010-06-21T12:15:00.032+10:00

The pooh I refer to is not the adorable bear in search of honey. No,things are not that slow and quiet here in the islands that we have nothing else to talk about. (Those of you without little kids or high school boys might want to skip to the next paragraph, or my wife who can't handle wiping the bum of her own kids!) Alex and Ellie, newly potty trained, having taken to categorizing their poohs. In high school, during long swim practices or hours on the bus we used to do this also I must admit, but did not expect it from my 3 year old daughter. Some of the top categories currently are the rocket pooh, the pretzel pooh, and a new category yesterday from Alex; the number 7 pooh. (It looked like a number 7 and yes, he is getting quite good at his numbers also). Ellie just added a new category today, the snail pooh. I don't think I need to provide any more detail as the category names are quite accurate and descriptive! Let me know if you are interested and I will keep you updated on new interesting categories.

All our things are in the container and on their way to Oz. It is hard to believe that we haven't been married eight years yet and this is the fourth container we have put on a ship. It was quite a chaotic and confusion packed week trying to get everything packed. The movers had looked at our stuff and said it would all fit in a 20ft container. After packing up our stuff in the house they went to our storage locker, which they had seen when they did the quote, and said it wouldn't all fit. If we had know that we would have prioritized and some of the things in the back of the container already we would have left out. Emma spent some hectic days trying to prioritize our stuff in the storage locker and after packing what we had felt was critical, they said there was more room. We went to look and there was lots more room; it probably all would have fit. We were able to throw more things in and in the end didn't have to leave anything really worthwhile. We have been trying to sell the rest of our stuff including a huge yard sale. Fortunately our house is furnished so we have most of the necessities we need to survive the next few weeks. In between packing and taking care of all the little things that need to be tied up before leaving a country we have been taking advantage of the beaches and the pool with the kids. (And mummy and daddy being able to go out to dinner by ourselves whenever we want. We are not ready for a nanny-free life just yet!) One Saturday afternoon we took the kids to "Margaritaville", Jimmy Buffet's bar and restaurant here. They have a large water slide with pool in the restaurant. It was funny to realize that on Saturday afternoons the long lines at Margaritaville are not at the bar, but the little kids in line for the water slide. Saturday afternoon is kids birthday party day as once the cruise ships leave, there is not much business. We all had a blast on the water slide, even Ellie who said she was too scared to try, eventually went down with me and had a blast! We then enjoyed some Cheeseburgers in Paradise to make for a wonderful family outing.

I have also been taking advantage of some awesome ocean swimming. Several times a week I manage to get a swim in through some of the best snorkeling spots on the island. I start at Sunset House, a dive resort and hotel south of George Town and only a few minutes from our house. I swim north past Don Foster's Dive Resort, past Eden Rock, and to the float out if front of Paradise Restaurant then turn around and back to Sunset House. It is a nice 35 minute swim where I see lots of turtles, sting rays, barracuda and a huge assortment of tropical fish. On June 19 I returned to the Flowers One Mile Ocean swim. This year the course started north of the Ritz Carlton and we swam south. It was gorgeous, sunny and smooth. There was an even tougher field of Olympians, NCAA All Americans, and world class open water swimmers. (Even the Governor and his wife swam.) I went from 71st last year to 50th this year and went from 28 minutes down to under 24 this year. Just goes to show what doing a little training can do for you. There are lots of big prizes after the race but like last year, I didn't win a single raffle prize. When I got home and showed Alex my finishers medal (He loves to see the medals I get for my races) he looked at me and said "Daddy, did you win?" To all swimmers out there, I highly recommend coming down for the swim that Swimming World magazine has called one of the 13 must do swims in the world.

A couple weeks my grandmother Block passed away at the age of 98. Emma postponed her departure for Australia and the whole family went to Vermillion, South Dakota for the funeral. At my grandmother's request the entire family, except for OJ who is in Afghanistan, were able to make it and we had a wonderful family reunion. It was wonderful to see so many family we haven't seen in years and the kids just loved playing with their Block cousins all weekend. On our flight from Cayman to Atlanta where we had a connecting flight to Omaha, the two kids and me were in first class while Emma was back in coach. The first class seats were compliments of Priceline. Initially I thought I had won the jackpot, while after a few nonstop minutes of "why" questions, spilled juice and arguments about who got to sit next to daddy, I started thinking that maybe mummy reading her book in quiet in back had the better deal. Then we got our wonderful lunch with open bar. Emma had a bag of peanuts back in coach and kept trying to come up and steal our food. I had to keep asking the flight attendant to move her back! Little Ellie had an empty first class seat next to her the whole flight. Even after we were in the air they wouldn't let Emma move up to the empty seat to sit with her kids! In Atlanta, after numerous delays, our flight was cancelled at 2200. We were fortunate that because we had kids they put us up at the airport hotel while everyone else on the flight had to stay in the airport. We had a 0600 flight the next morning so it seemed that we were getting up shortly after going to sleep to get back for our flight. After seeing everyone else looking more dishevelled than us after a night in the airport we didn't complain too much. We finally made it to Omaha, got our car and made the drive to Vermillion. It was a really nice weekend, we had some great family meals and lots of time cleaning out the house to reminisce, look at pictures and catch up with everyone. Back at Omaha we had to say goodbye to mummy as she was off to Oz and me and the kids were back to Cayman to finish school and tie up the rest of the loose ends. It was a uneventful trip home for us and Emma just made it to her flight to Oz in LA.

Last week we had our high school graduation at school. The English system doesn't really do graduation, it is more of an American thing. In England you don't really graduate, you just finish school and you don't find out how you did until August when your exam results actually come out. Cayman is a blend of the English and American so while the students don't know their external exam grades, they still have their school grades and know whether they have met the criteria. Some were graduating for the second time as they graduate after year 11 when they complete their IGCSE and then again after year 13 when they complete their A levels. It is a big event and looked just like an American high school graduation. Our main hall started filling up an hour-and-a-half before start time. The soon to be graduates parade in with their gowns and mortar boards and everyone sits through lots of speeches. What made this graduation different from American ones I am used to, is we started the ceremony by singing "God Save the Queen" and while some music was performed by the concert band, some of the music was provided by the school steel pan band. It was a nice blend of America, England and Cayman!

Yesterday we went to the kids end-of-year picnic at school. They finish Montessori on June 24. We had fun eating lots of junk and playing in the yard. The kids loved showing me the school rabbit and all the toys they play with. At one point I was pushing Alex on the swing. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a little girl walking right in front of Alex. I turned around and grabbed her just before she was clocked by Alex swinging. There was another dad pushing his kid and he said "Good thing you aren't Robert Green!" (For those out there not following the football, Robert Green was the England keeper during the match against the US). It seems as if it was just yesterday I was off to MQ in July to watch the England-Sweden match one night at the outside coffee shop during the last World Cup while Emma sat at home, very pregnant, waiting for the satellite guy to come by and hook up our football package. She joked at what seemed like an eternity away, that by the next World Cup we would have a big boy. (We definitely would never have considered having a big girl by then also.). World Cup fever is evident here in Cayman too. Last week I had a couple free periods during the US-Slovakia game so I went down the street to Wendy's to watch. There were quite a few other people obviously taking an extra long breakfast so they could watch the game.

I still remember the spectacular view as we first flew into Cayman in March last year. Being able to see the whole island and the reef around it is really something. Coming in this time we had another spectacular view of the island again, only now we can actually recognize many of the landmarks we have come to know over the last year. It struck me that this might be the last time we see this view. Once you land you get introduced to the island right away. No jet-way, you go down the stairs and feel the sun on your face and smell the ocean as you walk down to the immigration building. Live Caribbean music is being played and lots of people in the open on the second floor where you can shout hello to the arrivals. Today we took part in a Cayman farewell tradition. We went down to the shoe tree and nailed a flip-flop to the tree for Alex and one for Ellie. It is only 12 more days to get things wrapped up before we are off to Minnesota for the summer and then on to meet up with Emma down under. It has been another great adventure and once again this ending is yet another beginning.

happy bday alex and ellie

2010-05-16T08:34:00.013+10:00

It has been a while since our last post. With another big move half-way around the world in the planning, we have been quite busy. We had a fun Easter. Not only did the bunny bring a huge amount of chocolate and eggs, apparently he also brings presents. The kids got more gifts to go with the presents from Disney and the presents Latha had waiting for them when we got back from Disney. Perhaps the highlight was the princess swimsuit for our little princess.

At the school fair Eric spent part of the afternoon in the dunk tank. The kids enjoyed getting to dunk me. The up side is the water was warm and it was nice and sunny out so I quite enjoyed being in the tank. I had another birthday and my lovely wife took me out for a lovely dinner at Prime, the local Brazilian steak house. It is a meat buffet that they bring by your table. That is just my thing and I enjoyed all the amazing meats that kept appearing at our table. We even managed to roll around the corner to TCBY for dessert. TCBY is going strong here in the islands! There was a big function going on at the Governor's mansion across the street so we enjoyed our dessert with some live music.

With the movers coming in a few weeks, before either of the kids' birthday, Latha had to get them their large presents early. (She insists on buying big!!) Alex has a red racing car that is battery powered that he can sit in. He loves to drive it around the parking lot in front of the house. Ellie got a new, very large doll house that she and Alex love to play with. Alex offers to let Ellie drive his race car but she is too scared she says. We decided to have a joint birthday party as the presents will need to be packed and we will not be here for Alex's. We ended up with 30 3 and 4 year olds at the local indoor play area. Alex and Ellie refer to it as the "Gym, Gym slide". It has a large climbing area with ball pit, video games and lots of toys. We have been to many parties there and that is where the kids wanted to have it. Emma went into super mummy mode in her planning. There were two pinatas, one "Cars" theme and one with Princesses, two cakes, one with a picture of me and Alex with Lightning McQueen from Disneyworld and one with Princesses for Ellie. Everyone had a great time, got lots of candy, ate pizza, chips and chicken nuggets and enjoyed the two cakes with fire on it! Ellie is such a princess she has to blow daintily so she had a hard time getting the candles out! There were the goodie bags for all the kids at the end of the party. Emma demonstrated a new talent we haven't seen before as a kids party planner. The kids had a huge mound of presents so it is a good thing we had the party before the movers come.

Later that afternoon I went to do my first ocean swim race in 11 months. I have only been swimming for two months so was mostly going to look at the fishies and enjoy the snacks. There were about 178 swimmers for the 800m swim north along 7 mile beach from Governor's Beach to Public Beach. The weather was great and I really enjoyed the swim. First and second place went to the Cayman's very talented Olympic swimming brother, Shaune and Brett Fraser. At the men's NCAA swim championships just over a month ago Shaune was second in the 200 free and 200 IM and won the 200 fly. Brother Brett was 7th in the 200 free. They both swim for University of Florida and have swum for Cayman at the Olympics and World Championships. For an old man I was not too far back in 18th place, 2d place in the 40-44 age group. They had very nice trophies for the top 3 in each age group. The youngest kids swimming were 8! Alex and Emma were waiting in the water at the finish and Alex had a blast playing in the ocean with one of his friends who was there with mom who had just swum. With the advice of some of the swimmers from the pool, I have found a fantastic spot to swim in the ocean down near our house. I have now been to swim several times in the evening or early in the morning before school. I swim from Sunset house north to Paradise then back. This covers some of the best snorkeling spots on the island so it is a wonderful swim with lots to see and distract me.

Ellie has been sleeping in the queen bed in their room and Alex has been sleeping on his single mattress because it has a Lightning McQueen pillow, sheets and blanket. Even with a large bed for a tiny girl, Ellie squirms around so much she falls off and lands in the middle of Alex's bed in the night. Alex usually ends up waking up crying because Ellie is touching him. Ellie just sleeps right through and we have to put her back in her bed. Last week we sold Alex's mattress so now they are sharing the queen bed. I feel a bit bad for Alex because Ellie takes up a huge amount of bed for such a small girl!

One of our big worries was our family member that won't be coming to Oz with us. Latha had said she would like to stay here and we have been fortunate to find her a job with a Canadian family with 2 year old twins and a third on the way in August. They seem really nice and Latha has been over several times to help out and get to know the family. We have all been for a nice BBQ one Sunday afternoon.

Last week the older kids (year 11-13) at school went off to begin their study leave, a British institution, as they get ready for their external exams. That means I now have a shorter teaching schedule, except when they all come in to get help. That is giving me time to start wrapping things up and getting things organized. There is a lot more paperwork involved in applying for my Australian visa than there was when we got my visa for the UK. We are excited about the big move and also overwhelmed by having to do this again after just a year. One benefit is we still have things boxed up that we never unpacked! It feels as if we are going home and the kids keep telling everyone they are going to Australia they are so excited. I will be in Minnesota with the kids for a few weeks over the summer as Emma gets settled in Brisbane.

The Princess Diaries

2010-04-04T13:42:00.002+10:00

We had our first family vacation on our own this past week. We spent five full days at Disney in Orlando and had an absolute blast! It was all planned at the last minute to celebrate our next big adventure coming soon this summer. Alex was soo excited to be flying on a Cayman Airways plane again. He spent the whole trip to Orlando telling everyone that asked where we were going; "on a Cayman airways plane". We stayed at the Disney All Star Movie resort in one of the "Toy Story" buildings. The kids loved walking to the dining room as we had to walk past the extra large Woody, Buzz Light Year, Dinosaur and Bo Peep. We also had fun wandering around the resort looking at the Fantasia figures, and even a favorite for Alex, Herbie the love bug!

Alex and Ellie have been Disney kids since they were born, thanks to the influence of mum and dad. They know all the Disney characters, even most of the older films like "Sleeping Beauty" ,"Cinderella", and "Mary Poppins". Ellie loves princesses and believes she is one, perhaps aided by mum and dad calling her a princess and a closet full of princess dresses and accessories. Our first morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom. Before even getting into the park we had ridden the tram in the parking lot and the monorail to get to the park. Alex and Ellie had so much fun just doing that we were wondering if we even needed to go into the park! Ellie spent the day alternating between stomping around in a very un-princess like way and prancing. There was never any question that Ellie owned the park. She referred to Cinderella's Castle as "my castle"! Every time we saw it she pointed it out and said "there is my castle" Not long into the day she decided she needed a princess hat to go with her princess dress she had been wearing all day. She knew exactly what she wanted and picked out a tall, pointy, pink hat with her favorite princesses on it and some lace hanging off it.

Three months ago when we were in Minneapolis for Christmas we all went to the Mall of America to take the kids on some of the rides. Alex had lots of fun going on some of the rides but Ellie was terrified and refused to go on any. She loved watching the horses on the carousel but screamed if we tried to get her onto the ride. Not long into wandering around the park Ellie insisted on going on the Dumbo, flying elephant ride. We were a bit apprehensive about waiting in line to only have her change her mind. She had a blast and not long after Dumbo she was enjoying riding on the horses on the carousel. At Epcot she had cried all the way through the Nemo ride in the clam-shell cart so we were concerned about how many rides she might want to go on. By the end of the week she was riding everything she could. The only other ride she didn't want to go on were the racing cars. It was one of the highlights for Alex to get to drive a racing car. His legs were too short to reach the accelerator so I had to press while drove around the course, racing with the other cars. She has piloted the rocket ships, flying carpets and dinosaurs and the tea cups. One afternoon while we were enjoying the cruise on the Mark Twain river steamboat, Ellie saw the runaway train roller coaster and was all excited to ride. Unfortunately she was too short for that but on the last day we did go on Pirates of the Caribbean. Ellie smiled all the way through the line in the dark with skeletons, loved getting splashed when we shot down the waterfall and kept smiling through the cannonballs. Living in Cayman though, they are used to pirates. The favorite ride for the grown-ups was the Toy Story 3D ride at Hollywood Studios. Even Ellie had a great time shooting all the targets with her cannon as we spun through the toy room.

Alex and Ellie were really good standing in long lines for the rides and shows. They were also really well behaved and enjoyed in all the shows. We saw Muppet 3D, Country Bear Jamboree, Monsters Inc. comedy show, Tiki Room, Lion King show, Ariel's Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney, and the car stunt show at Disney's Hollywood studios. Alex and Ellie just loved the car stunt show, watching the cars racing around and jumping. They are still talking about seeing how one of the cars was controlled by someone attached to the outside of the side of the car. They also loved the stunt where the motorcycle went through a wall of fire and the driver caught on fire. Alex has always been a car nut so he can't stop talking about it but the princess really enjoyed it too. Earlier Alex had been so excited to finally get to meet Lighting McQueen and Mater in person! One afternoon we were sitting on the curb at Main Street enjoying a barbershop quartet singing, tap dancing and cracking corny jokes; well I was enjoying the corny jokes. They started singing a song from "Mary Poppins", and after just a couple lines Alex turned to me and said "that is from Mary Poppins". Our kids know their Disney. One evening while wandering the roads of Hollywood studios a yellow truck with trailer that looked like a gardening company pulled up in the middle of the road and set up. They were actually a band and soon were rocking to some classic 70's and 80's rock. Now Alex is a rocker, and soon was rocking along. Another boy was rocking along in the crowd and the band handed him an inflatable guitar to play. Alex was disappointed he didn't get one. Emma told him to go ask to borrow it. Alex shuffled over with his shoulders rolled forward and a sad face. Rather than ask to borrow the inflatable guitar he just stood there looking dejected at the boy. The boy didn't really notice him and after a few moments Alex shuffled back, sad at his missed opportunity for stardom.

One of the highlights of Disney for kids is the chance to meet the characters in person. We met lots of the characters and Alex trooped in to get his picture taken with lots of Disney's famous characters. He met Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Lightining McQueen and Mater, Buzz Lightyear and Woody, some of the little Einsteins, Tigger and Pooh, Handy Manny and others. Ellie wasn't keen on meeting any in person. She tolerated being held to meet Minnie but that was it, she didn't even want to meet the Easter Bunny. As she said, the others are boys. After waiting in line at Ariel's grotto though, she clamored right up the rock that Ariel was sitting on and gushed over her she was so excited. Alex didn't want to go near Ariel since she was a princess and only for girls! The only other person Ellie agreed to meet was Alice in Wonderland. (While not a princess, she is a girl!)

Ellie loves animals, all types, but especially sheep and reindeer. There are animals everywhere at the Disney parks. We had a great safari ride at Disney's animal park and Ellie loved seeing the giraffes, elephants, rhino's and even a lion. Of course at every turn Ellie wanted to know when we were going to see the sheep. While not real, the kids loved seeing the animals on the river cruise. Snakes, crocodiles, elephants, and hippos were all really exciting but Ellie kept asking where the sheep were? During the country bear jamboree show there are several large deer and moose heads on the wall that talk during the show. Anything with antlers on it is a reindeer to Ellie so she was excited to see the talking reindeer. At Epcot we really enjoyed the under the sea area. While Ellie cried through the Nemo ride she really enjoyed the "Crush the Turtle Talk" as Nemo is one of their favorite movies. We all really enjoyed the amazing aquarium with all the fish, sharks, rays, and manatees. At one point Ellie was standing up against the glass watching the fish and rays. A boy who must have been about 8 was standing next to her pointing at a ray swimming by and said to one of his siblings, "look, a stingray". Ellie just turned to him and said:" that is not a stingray, it is an eagle ray." She was right too!

One night we stayed late at the Magic Kingdom so we could see the Electric Light Parade. The kids loved seeing all the lights once the sun had gone down. As we walked past the tea cups decked out in beautiful lights Alex said to Ellie, "look Ellie, Christmas lights." Ellie responded "yes Alex, but there is no snow here." Ellie was really excited to see her castle in different colored lights every few minutes. 45 minutes before the parade started, the best spot we could find was six rows back. The kids were really good about waiting for the parade to start. Once it started they just loved the lights, characters and music as they watched on our shoulders. We didn't want to stretch our luck, so headed out after the parade and before the fireworks started. We got to see some of the fireworks as we walked out of the park and up to the monorail station. Ellie was still wide awake at 2200 as she told everyone the fireworks were coming from her castle. Ellie managed to walk to the car and finally fell asleep after a busy day at about 2230!

Our last day was a busy one at Magic Kingdom. We still had more classics to ride and some favorites to ride again. Alex and Ellie had a blast on "Its a Small World" and we got to see the big parade. While Emma shopped at the Emporium, we had front row seats by the curb on main street. Ellie even has the princess wave down, fingers straight and together with a slight wave and hand rotation. She and Alex sat there waving excitedly at every princess and character that went by. Every one of Ellie's favorite princesses went by; Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine, and even Mary Poppins too. We had been worried before booking the trip that the kids might be too small to really get the most out of the trip. Not to worry, as they had a blast, as did the big kids too. It was a fantastic experience across the board, from the hotel, to the parks, to the atmosphere. The kids talk about all their experiences non-stop and looking at the pictures today on the computer, they can still remember where the pictures are from and what we did at each one.

Follow the yellow brick road

2010-03-27T10:56:00.002+10:00

Our visitors are all gone now that Patrice has headed off on her Cayman airways flight back to colder than here New York. We have loved having lots of visitors and getting to enjoy so much of what Cayman has to offer. We spent her last night at Calico Jack's on the beach with another nice dinner, cold and fruity drinks and another spectacular sunset. This morning Emma and Patrice went down over 100 feet on the Atlantis submarine and enjoyed the sights. Alex and Ellie were enjoying Easter celebrations on their last school day of the term with Easter eggs and an Easter lunch that Alex says was carrots and juice. Eric celebrated Easter with the stations of the cross in church with the students and then we were all off to Governor's Beach for the rest of the morning. The trip to the beach is the school's annual celebration to the end of the term. I never get tired of the gorgeous shades of blue of the water and the gorgeous sand. Not often will you get to spend your school trip on a gorgeous beach ten minutes from school. We are now packing for our trip to Disney World in Orlando. The kids are really excited and I am not sure how many princess dresses Ellie will require us to pack.

The winds of change have been swirling and howling around Cayman the last few months. The seas have been so rough the kids haven't really been able to get in the water and it is hard to stay put. At the start of "Mary Poppins" the admiral points out that the winds are changing direction and to watch out. Not long after that all the nannies are blown away and Mary Poppins glides in. (The kids have been watching a lot of Mary Poppins recently) Maybe more apt is the wind that lifted poor Dorothy and Toto off the ground and dropped them in Oz. You can just picture Emma as Dorothy if she had some pig tails in. Alex and Ellie would be in the role of Toto (child labor laws means they can't work enough hours for just one to play the role). That means Eric must be scarecrow, tin-man and the lion. Dorothy remarks that they aren't in Kansas anymore and sets out to try to get home by following the yellow brick road. A strong wind has taken us and we will soon be dropping in Oz. Brisbane, Australia to be more specific. That will be the end of the yellow brick road for us and it feels like we are going home. Emma has accepted a job at Blake Dawson in Brisbane after having no luck finding anything here in Cayman. We are sad to be leaving, especially as I am really enjoying my post as head of maths and the school. Sometimes the winds of change just take you though and the best thing is to go along for the ride. We are all really excited about the new opportunities even as we will miss our beautiful island. Eric and the kids will be leaving sometime in July after school finishes. Emma will probably have to head to Brisbane before then, but details are still being worked out. After our big adventure to Disney we are going to be really busy organizing another move half way around the world. Stay tuned for more details of our next big adventure...

Irish Twins

2010-03-26T12:44:00.002+10:00

We thought this would be a good year to introduce our own little bit of Ireland, our Irish twins, to St Patrick's day. We covered ourselves in green and went off to the Irish 5k jog at Britannia golf course. Emma applied herself as usual and soon had our double pushchair covered in shamrocks and green balloons. Ellie and Alex were green leprechauns, including shamrocks painted on their faces. Coincidentally, they had learned all about shamrocks at school that morning. We brought up the rear of the pack of over 1000 participants as Ellie insisted she had to walk and refused to get in the pushchair. Ellie and I had a great time watching all the runners and walkers go by in the other direction. Ellie waved at everyone, smelled all the flowers, and chatted to me nonstop. A few hundred metres into the walk Alex spotted his long lost girlfriend and was off running after her with mum trying to keep up, and her friends. Eva is Alex's good friend from his last school and even though he hadn't seen her in many months, he spent the whole rest of the evening following after her. Ellie finally did climb into the pushchair and we cut some corners, caught up with mum and Alex, and found the finish. We all had a great time walking, watching the stars come out, and seeing some old friends. Alex told us he now loved Patrick and shamrocks so maybe their is some Irish in these little munchkins of ours!

It has been a busy week for us with lots of visitors from the States. Last Friday, 19 March, my uncle Herman and aunt Patti arrived for a long weekend visit. We had some lovely dinners by the water, the first night at Paradise and the second night at Breeze's. On Saturday we all spent the morning at Rum Point and wandered through town in the evening before dinner on the patio at Breeze's. Patrice had also flown in from NY on Friday and spent the weekend at the Westin. The kids really enjoyed two trips to the airport on Friday. Sunday we met Patrice for brunch by the beach at the Westin. It was a lovely afternoon and even nicer that the champagne flows freely all through brunch. We were all too full to do much more than lounge around the rest of the afternoon. Herman and Patti flew out Monday morning while Emma and Patrice began the exhausting task of seeing the sights and lounging at Rum Point. Patrice swam with the stingrays and they both went to Hell. (Hell is a small town here on Cayman). They also checked out St Pedro's castle and some of the shopping in town. Eric had a busy at week at work while Emma and Patrice ran themselves ragged. Today was last day of classes for me before we go on our two week end of term break. Our last day is a half-day trip to the beach to reward everyone for a busy and successful term.

Emma and I are rewarding ourselves, (or maybe its the kids) by jetting off to Disneyworld for 5 days on Saturday. It will be our first family holiday where we are not visiting family. The winds of change that have been swirling are soon to touch down and really mix things up.......

Pirates and Wenches

2010-03-16T12:51:00.002+10:00

On Friday the 13th, 2009 we arrived here in Cayman and one year on the kids are really enjoying exploring all this little island has to offer.

A couple weeks ago we went to Dolphin discovery (one of the two dolphin parks on the island) with the kids. They loved watching the dolphins swim around, jump and walk across the water. It was fun watching the people in the water with the dolphins also. The best part is you can go in to just sit by the big pool and watch the dolphins for free. The ocean was really rough that day so the ways were breaking over the wall and into the tank.

Alex had his interview for kindergarten at St Ignatius and has been offered a spot. He had fun telling the head how he went to the cold during xmas to see grandma Gwen, tata Tam, Roro, Maia and Reese. It is funny how when he tells the story he says he went yesterday on the Cayman airways plane. When we watch the planes at the airport park he also loves to watch the planes and recount how he was on the plane yesterday. He now knows his planes and can tell from a distance the Cayman Airways, Air Canada, and British Airways (also known as Nana airways) planes.

I got in the pool for the first time since Nov 2008 and swam with a masters group for the first time since we left London over 4.5 years ago. It really hurt but I managed to lead the second lane! It took me a while to recover and eventually pull myself out of the pool at the end of practice. The coach is Mike Barrowman who all you swimmers out there will know. For those who don't he was a famous breastroker who won gold in the 200m breast in the 1992 Olympics. They only practice twice a week which is about all I can handle right now.

Alex got a new grave digger monster truck toy from Latha this week to go with his El Toro Loco one he already had. It came with a monster truck DVD which Alex and Ellie watch over and over. They like to rock out to the heavy metal soundtrack while the trucks crash, roll and crush in the background. At one point Ellie started spinning around in circles and Alex informed her that this was not a princess song but monster trucks. Ellie duly modified her dancing to match the heavy metal and tried to get up on the table. Ellie loves the "rhino" truck.

On March 5 we had the first ever Maths Fair at my school. All our year 7 and 8 students made a project and displayed them in Loyola Hall, our big school hall. The projects were excellent and I was really surprised with the effort and creativity that went into them. The kids really enjoyed them and the rest of students in school all had a good time exploring the projects and playing the games that many of the students had made.

Two Saturdays ago we went to DART park ( a beautiful park by the ocean known as chicken park by the kids for all the chickens that run wild). Once again they invited themselves to a birthday party going on while we were there. After saying goodbye to our new friends at the "Cars" birthday party, they were both playing on the big climbing frame with another boy a year older than Alex. As Alex and the boy were climbing down one of the ladders, Ellie came over to follow them down. The boy told her she couldn't come down because she was a baby. She replied "I am not a baby, I am Ellie the girl." Later in the afternoon they went to the birthday of one of Ellie's friends from school. Ellie really enjoyed the princess party.

A couple Sundays ago we went to the Botanical gardens. The gardens were beautiful and we spent the morning walking through the gardens. We saw 3 blue iguanas, which are the only native land animal to the islands and the rarest iguana in the world. They have a breeding program at the gardens and they are one of the few places on the island to see them in the wild.

To celebrate our one year on the island, Emma and I went out to a nice dinner and a show at Vivendi on the 13th. The show was like a cabaret and the dancers and acrobats are from Cuba. While we had a good time, we have mixed reviews of the show. For a very expensive ticket, the dancing to the modern pop music was average at best. The two acrobats were very talented; a lady who did lots of aerial work from a rope, and a guy who did some amazing balancing on different sized metal cylinders. The second half was mostly Latin music and dancing which was much better. They went for total tackiness to end the show with a version of "I've had the time of my life" which my child bride tells me was exactly the same as the movie "Dirty Dancing"!

This past Sunday we went to the pirate caves and zoo in Bodden Town with Alex and Ellie. You can't go to the pirate caves without your pirate outfit, so Alex put his on and Ellie put on her prettiest princes gown. We had a chance to play with the parrots and walk through the nature park which has lots of animals. The kids loved the pigs, horse, goats, chickens, iguanas, a lot of different birds and even some fresh water sting rays. We went down the stairs to the pirate caves and the kids got a little scared. Daddy had to take Alex's sword and go in and make sure there were no pirates in the cave. It was a bit like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the caves with the decorations. The caves were really interesting and are actually real pirate caves where they have found treasure. Since I didn't find any pirates, the kids decided to explore them and loved exploring the caves. Later we went and hung out at the beach for a while until nap time.

I find it fascinating how a 2 year old and a 3 year old can push each others buttons. They are both creatures of habit which makes it easy to upset them. The other night they were having their evening bath. The routine is Alex always gets out first. When Ellie really wants to wind him up she will get out first and he will end up in tears as a result. Before I could even finish saying "time to get out", Ellie had jumped out. She then stood there, doing a little victory dance with her mischievous smile, taunting Alex, saying " I won, I won." She got exactly the response she wanted, Alex was distraught. Of course they also randomly give each other a big hug and say "I am your best friend. I love you."

Every night they like to listen to music when they go to sleep. We found a CD of Jimmy Buffett's best hits which someone has turned into lullabies. The CD case has a parrot on it so Ellie always requests parrot music when they go to sleep. It is never too early to become a parrot head.

We have had rough seas the last few weeks and some strong winds. I am sure "the answer my friend is blowing in the wind..."

MAN IN THE PINK FLOWER SPEEDO

2010-02-22T11:31:00.002+10:00

While playing with the kids in the garden this afternoon, Alex found a caterpillar in the grass. He brought me over to see it and it was just laying there. Trying to not upset him I said "look the caterpillar is sleeping" when it was obvious it was dead. Alex said "no he isn't sleeping, he is dead!" and didn't seem to bothered by the fact. We were off to throw the frisbee some more. He has suddenly gotten quite good at throwing the frisbee.

Alex has figured out how to turn on our ipod alarm clock by the bed. When he wants to wake us up he comes in and turns it on, finds a song and starts dancing. One morning he put on the cure and started dancing. He has obviously inherited some of my greatest dance moves as he definitely dances like his dad. This evening after coming home from a birthday party he and Ellie decided they were going to dance for me. Alex said he was going to do the Flounder dance. I am not sure if this is something he learned in school or just made up. He started doing this dance and I was laughing so hard. He gets quite upset when I laugh at his dancing and stopped to tell me I shouldn't laugh while he was dancing. Then he started again and has this hilarious smile on his face watching me while he dances and it is just impossible not to crack up again.

While getting ready to go to our birthday party one afternoon we ran into the unknowable, screeching, sobbing Ellie. 20 Minutes before the party we tried to get Ellie ready to go. This is a party she has been excited about for more than a week. Latha had laid out a pretty dress for her. I thought it might not be the best outfit to go to the park to run in the dirt, climb and slide in but didn't say anything. Ellie refused to put the dress on and started sobbing. I stepped in and offered her anything she wanted to wear. My fashion sense is infamous and I have no problem telling all the other parents that I approved of her outfit, no matter how outrageous. I took her into her room and offered her to pick out anything she wanted. She didn't want anything and kept sobbing. I tried going through her shirts one by one and she didn't want any. I offered her any dress she wanted and she didn't want any. I asked if she still wanted to go to the party and she made it clear she wanted to go to the party and any attempt to leave her behind as Alex was already to go just ratcheted up the level of screaming and crying. She stood there in her nappy sobbing and refusing any solution. She didn't want to pick anything out and no matter what we offered she didn't want it. She cried and screamed for 25 minutes before we finally reached a compromise. In the meantime I had Alex all strapped in and the car going to try to motivate her. We finally agreed on an item but only if she didn't have to put it on until after we stopped the car at the party. Off we went to the car in only a nappy and got strapped into the car seat. With no shirt on Ellie was upset because the straps were hurting her. Out she came and she allowed me to put her shirt on. The shorts finally went on once we got out of the car at the park. They had a fabulous time at the party even though Ellie probably didn't match as much as mom or Latha would have liked.

The month of January was one birthday party after another. This has the kids fired up about their birthdays and they are constantly telling us where they want their party, what kind of cake they want and what presents they want.

One Friday night the kids had a movie night at school. The aim of the night was to raise money for the Haiti relief charities. The kids had Gino's pizza (very good local pizza) and TCBY yogurt. ( I know many have been kept awake at night wondering what ever happened to TCBY. Here on the island it is alive and well and they just opened their second shop here.) The kids enjoyed all the treats and watching "Fern Gully", a new movie for them.

One week after the Haiti earthquake we had a large earthquake here. It happened during school so we all evacuated classes and then stood around wondering what to do. It was 5.9 on the Richter scale. Fortunately there wasn't any damage around the island. The only damage I know of was a 20 foot sinkhole that opened up near a condo along the beach. Soon word got around and the whole island was driving by trying to get a look. Before long all the kids had called home and although we finally got the all clear to go back to school, most kids were gone and our remaining classes only had a handful of students.

This past Sunday, while the kids slept, I dropped Emma off at yoga and I went to the beach to get a swim in. I had a nice swim, if a bit choppy. When I came out of the water I couldn't get into the car. I was sure I had left it unlocked with the keys hidden inside. Yet somehow I was standing on the outside, wearing nothing but my pink flower speedo and goggles, the car locked. My phone and wallet were of course inside the car also and it was at least a 20 minute walk down the main road to where Emma was at yoga and she didn't have a spare key. I had few options so I walked over to the local beach bar which was packed by this time in the afternoon, and asked them to call a cab for me. A few minutes later the cab pulled up. I have to give the driver credit as he never blinked when this wet guy in a pink flower speedo said I needed a ride down to South Sound where we live to get my spare keys. It was as if this must be a normal occurrence in the average cabbie day. We made it home where I quickly put on some clothes, grabbed my spare keys, and then headed back up to the car. I am sure I will be a little more careful next time I go to swim!

We now have our first family pet compliments of Ellie. One day at DART park Ellie found a large hermit crab in his shell. She and Alex brought it home with them. While we hoped they would soon forget and we could let it go, Ellie insisted we keep it. Emma went to the pet store and found a container for it and some crab food. It is just like the one cousin Roro had last summer. The kids love to take it out of its cage and play with it. They usually get distracted after a few minutes and we have spent a lot of time searching the house to find the runaway crab. It hasn't managed to escape yet. He has become a part of the family and the kids just love playing with him.   We have now been back to the park and collected a couple more hermit crabs because apparently the like to have company.

On Feb 17 we all went to the Cayman Agricultural Show out at the show grounds. Even though we had been warned how crowded it would be, we were not prepared for how packed the road was trying to get in. The kids had a great time looking at all the animals. There were cows, horses, pigs, goats, rabbits, and of course lots of chickens. It had that small town country fair feel. The winners had their blue ribbons pinned to their stalls and there were also lots of crafts on display also. We saw the wining crocheted toilet roll covers as well as all sorts of other crafts. The kids also had fun on the giant bouncy castle and slides.

We have a new favorite TV show, "Team Umizoomi". We have never seen a show that the kids loved so much and that they will watch over and over and over and over, etc. (The show is on Nick Jr.) We are going nuts but they just love it. I shouldn't complain too much as it is a kids maths show. They are learning so much from it. While playing dinosaurs the other day Ellie announced she was a Stegosaurus. She will then change her mind and announce that now she is a micro-raptor. This new found knowledge, as well as Alex now knowing what a trapezoid is, are our consolation when they keep wanting to watch Umizoomi again!

A week ago the doctor mentioned that the kids might have a dairy allergy. Alex always has a runny nose and a cough and Ellie has eczema. He thought dairy might have something to do with it. They both love their milk, chocolate, ice cream, cheese and yogurt. At great effort and suffering they have been dairy free for more than a week now. It has not been easy and they have not taken easily to soy milk, yogurt and cheese. They are starting to come around and it seems to be helping. We will have to see how it goes long term.

A man sang "the winds of change are a blowin.." I feel the wind picking up and it is not a hurricane ....

Our White Christmas

2010-01-04T11:41:00.002+10:00

We flew out to Minnesota on Sunday Dec 20. We had a layover in Chicago which was extended due to the big storm which had hit the east coast the days before as the plane we were waiting for was stuck in DC. There was lots of snow on the ground and the kids loved seeing the snow through the airport windows. As they usually do, Alex and Ellie made lots of friends in the airport. They love to go up to people and say "What are you doing?". They then usually make themselves at home. Ellie has become quite the little chatterbox and talks non-stop. Papa Denny and Grandma Gwen were there to pick us up from the airport. The only hitch was one of our suitcases did not show up. It was the one with all the Christmas presents and Emma's warm shoes and clothes.

There was quite a bit of snow on the ground in Minneapolis and first thing Monday morning Alex and Ellie were all excited to go out and play with their cousins in the snow. After just a few minutes it was too cold for Alex and he wanted to go in. Ellie kept following the big kids out to the hill to watch them sled. Soon though she had lost both of her rain boots ( we don't have a large winter wardrobe) and fallen into a big pile of snow and then lost a glove. That was enough cold for her and they spent most of the rest of the visit indoors. After the rest of the kids had gone off to school we were off for some last minute Christmas shopping and haircuts for the kids which they really enjoy. Emma spent the day walking around in sandals as her boots were in the missing suitcase. The street the Hodgins live on looked very festive every night. Every house had lights all over and on all the trees. It looked very Chirstmassy and the kids loved seeing all the lights and really made it feel like Christmas.

Late that night Eric went to the airport to pick up OJ and Songul. Sometime while he was out from 0000 until 0100, the missing suitcase was delivered and waiting on the front porch. Emma now had some warm shoes and clothes and everyone else would get their special presents we had brought from the Caymans!

The weather forecast was for lots of snow coming just in time for Christmas so we were all excited. Tuesday we went to the Mall of America and Alex had lots of fun going on the rides with me. Ellie decided that while they looked like lots of fun she didn't want to go on them. She didn't really want Alex and I to go on them without her either. Wednesday morning we all went downtown to see the amazing Christmas display in Macy's. The kids loved the Santa's Workshop display. Alex has spent all Christmas season walking around going "Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas". Ellie follows him around going "I'm a reindeer, I'm a reindeer." She has been eager to see some reindeer and we were hoping they might have some at the display. When we finally got to Santa's house the reindeer were out of site behind the big barn door. You could hear them and see the doors moving as if they were trying to bust out. This was not going to cut it for Ellie so she went over to the lady playing Mrs Claus and bluntly asked where the reindeer were? She didn't really like the answer that they were being kept behind the doors. She kept going back to Mrs Claus to keep trying to get to see the reindeer to no avail. After Macy's we wandered around downtown checking out all the lights, decorations and fountains. The kids had a blast wandering through all the walkways and seeing all the sights.

The snow started later that afternoon but did not keep me, OJ, Songul and Brad from heading back downtown to the Xcel Energy center to see the Minnesota Wild play the Edmonton Oilers. Brad got tickets from work and we had a fantastic time. Our seats were in the club level. Excellent food, lots of room and a relaxing atmosphere, and a good game which the Wild won 3-1. It was Songul's first hockey game and she had lots of fun. The snow was getting heavy as we left and it took a while to get home.

It kept snowing on Christmas Eve and most of the kids played outside and made a snowman. Alex and Ellie were content inside and watched the snowman from the window in the study. We had lots of great dinners all week and the kids had a blast playing in the basement with their older cousins. Christmas morning was a treat with seven kids going crazy over a huge pile of presents. Alex had lots of cars, trucks and planes and Ellie had lots of dolls, a tea set, crayons and bizarrely, a pair of scissors. The reindeer food Alex and Ellie had made in school and been carried across the hemisphere had been polished off and the cookies and milk for Santa had also been devoured. It kept snowing and the kids played like crazy all day. Emma got a Wii and a Wii Fit so we all know how we will be spending our year. The Hodgins already had a Wii and we spent lots of time trying it out. They also got a Wii Fit for Christmas so we got to try it out. Alex loved the ski jumping game and is all excited we now have one at home too!

We enjoyed our last few days relaxing and spending time with everyone. On our last evening, Alex and Ellie finally decided to venture outside again to go skating with their cousins over at their school. They aren't quite ready to skate but had loads of fun walking on the makeshift ice rink on the frozen baseball field. Alex also went exploring across the deep snow and had a hard time keeping his boots on. (They were borrowed so a little large.) They had lots of fun even though it was bitterly cold for us beach Blocks. They had lots of fun and keep talking about the snow. We had to be at the airport by about 0500 on New Years Eve. We figured it wouldn't be too crowded that early but were in for a shock when we saw the lines! Security was not too much of a hassle and all our flights went smoothly. We had a couple hour layover in Tampa this time and the kids told everyone they could find that they had been in the snow and were now going home to see Lala. (That is what they call Latha and of course strangers were very puzzled by what these two little munchkins were talking about.) We had a reminder of how small our island is when the Religious Education (RE) teacher whose classroom is right next to mine and her husband sat down next to Emma on the plane. One of the boys from my tutor group and maths class came down the aisle a few minutes later with his family. The kids were very good on the flight and were very happy to be home to show Lala all their presents from Santa. We had been up since before 0400 so we didn't make it to see in the New Year. On Jan 2 as I was driving by the airport, I noticed a huge fleet of private jets parked at the airport. I have never seen so many at one time here. Must be a lot of high flyers come in for New Years.

The tree was just taken down and the decorations all put away. Monday, Jan 4, I go back to work and the kids go back to school. We have had a wonderful Christmas and love being able to spend more time with the Blocks and Hodgins in the US after being on the other side of the world for a while. We hope everyone else enjoyed their holidays and the start to 2010. Our weather is perfect and while we enjoyed our white Christmas, the beach Blocks are glad to be back by the Beach.

Christmas Concerts

2009-12-18T12:30:00.002+10:00

Wednesday night was the candlelight carol service at my school. It was held in our lovely courtyard. My class looks out on the lovely courtyard with some trees and a pretty fountain in the middle. There were beautiful Christmas lights across the courtyard and through the trees. The school concert band, choir and of course steel band all performed interspersed with carols sung by all. The highlight was the alto sax solo by one of the 6th formers (seniors) during "Have your self a merry little Christmas". Apparently he was the young musician of the year for the Cayman Islands last year. It was so good, he did an encore after the concert while we were waiting for the big raffle draw to take place. Unfortunately we didn't win any of the prizes in the big raffle. (The grand prize was $25,000!!) The trombone section in the band has quite a few women it too.

A side effect of the Madden's visit in November is that Ellie now believes all babies are Madeleine. Madeleine had just turned 1 and Ellie and Alex really enjoyed having a little one around. Alex was so gentle with her and followed her around helping her. Every time Ellie sees a picture of a baby she says "Madeleine". Even when she sees baby pictures of herself around the house, she insists it is Madeleine and won't believe us that it is actually her.

Today at school we only had a half day of classes. We then had a wonderful Christmas lunch in the canteen. Each tutor group had a table to decorate and enjoy lunch together. Afterwards the year 11 students put on a Panto in the hall for all. The tradition is they poke fun at the teachers. I guess since I am new I got of relatively lightly as they don't know me very well yet. It was very funny and the younger kids loved seeing the year 11's making fun of the teachers. Tomorrow we only have a half day and no classes. There is the big talent show and then mass before we break for the holidays. We are all looking forward to our break and the students don't realize that the teachers having been counting down the days more closely than them.

Tonight was the Christmas concert at Montessori for Alex and Ellie. There was a huge crowd watching, I never imagined there could be that many cars parked out in front for a small school. The kids all sat in chairs out on the patio with lights and a beautiful tree, with a packed audience of parents, grandparents and others crowded around, standing room only several rows deep. Alex and Ellie had their best Christmas outfits on and school provided jingle bells for their wrist and lovely angel tinsel halos for their heads. Ellie's class of two year olds was first singing their ABC's. Then Alex's class of the three year olds and the other class of four year olds came out in their little parade and took their places. They all sang a great collection of Christmas classics and did a wonderful job for a group of such young kids. The genius of the concert was it was very short. Lots of kids waving to their parents in the audience, some good singing and then before anyone could get distracted or grumpy we were done and on our way. The secret to a outstanding little kid performance is brevity! Afterwards we all went to see the amazing Christmas light display again. The kids just love wandering around all the lights, Santa's (except Ellie who is scared of any kind of Santa, even a mechanical one singing Christmas carols), reindeer, trains, polar bears and snowmen. We even ran into two of Alex's classmates, obviously the lights were the thing to do after the concert, and they were running all over with Ellie chasing after them trying to keep up.

This afternoon while watching the movie "Cars" (yes it is still Alex's fav) Alex said he wanted a Mack truck like in the movie. We told him we could put it in his request for Santa to bring to him on Christmas. He insisted that it had to be bought in the store and was not convinced that Santa could get him one. Sunday, the 20th, we are off early to Minnesota to soak up a cold and hopefully a white Christmas. The kids are all excited about singing their carols to Grandma, Grandpa, tata Tam and uncle Brad. The kids are also delighted to be going on an airplane again and keep asking when we are going to pack and dragging their little wheelie bags around the house and putting their essentials in. We hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas build up and have a fantastic holiday. As Alex loves to say while his little reindeer Ellie follows him around, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Meeeeeerrrrry Christmas!!"

Love Eric, Emma, Alex, and Ellie

Merry Christmas

2009-12-14T13:01:00.002+10:00

Hello all,
    I realize it has been a long time since we have posted so I will try to catch up. Life has been very busy here on tiny Grand Cayman.

    Emma has been busy looking for a job and looks like she is close to getting a position to start with a new firm early next year. Nothing is certain yet but things are looking good. Along side the job search we have had lots of visitors during November. First were our good friends the Maddens from Oman. They are in Senegal now but had been in the States because Sean was undergoing medical treatment. He was unable to come down but Kim came down for week with Abi and Madeleine. Abi is three days older than Alex and they were best friends back in Muscat. We haven't seen them in almost a year and half, yet Alex and Abi picked up as if they had just seen each other the day before. Ellie had a blast playing with a big kids as she wasn't walking the last time she had seen Abi. While I was at work everyone else had a great time enjoying the sites of the Caymans. One day my cousin Melanie and her daughter Tricia were in town for a day on a cruise. Emma and Kim picked them up and they spent the day at Rum Point, a wonderful beach on the north side. The cruise ships are not in town for long and they were back on the ship by the time I was done at work so missed them. There were also trips to the beach and the Turtle farm which the kids just loved. The highlight was the trip out to Stingray city. There is a shallow area out in the north sound where stingrays congregate. You can get in the water and the stingrays swim all around and you can feed and touch them. Everyone had a fabulous time and i was quite jealous being at work all day.

    A few days after the Maddens left, Emma's parents came into town for a couple week visit. We had fun hanging out, enjoying the beach and enjoying the kids' first batch of Christmas presents. The kids are still enjoying Montessori and swimming in the pool and at the beach. We also still make lots of visits to the airport and the airport park to watch the planes. While all our visitors were here Alex and Ellie slept in our bedroom with us. Alex has a single mattress and Ellie slept in her cot. After Emma's parents left we put Alex's mattress back in the kids room where our visitors had been sleeping. We decided that Ellie was getting too big for her cot so put her in a bed. The other bed in the kids room is a queen size bed. We offered Alex the big bed but he wanted to stay in his mattress as Nana had just brought him a single bed size Cars blanket and matching pillow case. He was more than happy to let little Ellie have the queen bed. So now Ellie has more bed per size of person than anyone else in the house. She loves her new bed but only sleeps in a tiny corner of the bed on the side next to Alex's bed. Alex is still getting up at various times in the night and coming upstairs and crawling into bed with us. Ellie has done this only a couple times but now has started getting up and going into Latha's room and getting into bed with her. One morning I came down and Ellie had gotten out of her bed and wandered into the living room and was sound asleep on the sofa!

    Alex and Ellie have really been enjoying the Christmas season. They helped put up the tree and just love watching the lights on our tree. While decorating the tree we put on lots of beads. They are Mardi Gras beads I got in New Orleans back in 1998 when I went to Mardi Gras with OJ. Ellie just loves the cheap, tacky beads and plays with them all the time. She keeps holding them in her hands and saying "Thank you daddy for my beads". As I told her, I am more than happy to make the sacrifice to go back to Mardi Gras to get her more if she wants. It is hard to keep them on the tree as she takes them off to wear them and play with them. They both enjoy Christmas music and can now sing along. We watch the Disney Christmas DVD's. Sadly for us there are only a few of the old classic Christmas programs that the kids like. They enjoy the Gumby Christmas, Tom and Jerry and the Grinch. None of the others like Rudolph or Frosty, when we try to get them to watch they aren't interested. They are really enjoying the Dora Christmas special. I wish I could say we were enjoying them but after a few dozens times we have had enough. We have been to see Santa a few times. This year Alex doesn't cry and will sit with Santa but Ellie is still terrified of the big man in red. We have also enjoyed driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights. Unlike in Oman, a lot of houses here go overboard with the Christmas lights. There is one house which beats anything you have ever seen in any TV show or movie. I am sure it is a good marker for planes on final approach to the airport. You can park and wander around the front lawn to see all the lights. It is very amazing and the kids just love it.

    I go on Christmas break next Friday, the 18th and then on Sunday we fly to Minneapolis to spend Christmas at my sister, Tamara's house. My parents will also be down and my brother OJ and wife Songul will also be coming out. It will be nice to see the family and for the kids to experience American Christmas, with all the trimmings including what seems like will be bitter Christmas cold and hopefully some snow. Hopefully we will be able to stay more current on the blog. We wish everyone a wonderful holiday and hope to see a lot more of you next year.

        Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.....

            Love Eric, Emma, Alex and Ellie

Ellie Picaso

2009-10-09T11:55:00.002+10:00

We haven't written in a while and it is probably because we have been busy. The weather has been great and we are two-thirds of the way through hurricane season and not even a whisper of a storm. I have been through five weeks of school and am very busy. I am really enjoying St Ignatius Catholic School. I am the head of maths, which is a small department, only three of us total. One of the other teachers is new also so we are very busy. Learning names of all the kids, teachers, parents and how everything works on top of teaching and getting the department organized. I have six classes, in the American system I have a class in each grade from 7th grade through 12th, and in the English system it is Year 8 through 13. I also have a year 9 tutor group. School is close enough that I can bike to work everyday and our classes look out onto a lovely courtyard with a nice fountain in the middle. The kids are really nice and I am really enjoying the school and glad to be back to work again. We are doing the IGCSE and A levels but the school has had to mesh this English system into an American system with grade point averages (GPAs) as many of the kids go to university in the States.

Back in July we purchased a beautiful house here. It took us a while to get all the paperwork for the mortgage as we have bank accounts in 3 countries and have just moved from a fourth. This makes it very hard to get all the papers you need, and to get them quickly. Although the seller had accepted our offer and deposit, a couple weeks ago, just as we were finally ready to close they accepted a higher offer and pulled out on us. This was a big disappointment as it was a beautiful house for a very good price and we had spent lots of time and money trying to get everything needed. The government had a big reduction of stamp duty for houses sold before the end of September, so since we finally had all our financing and paperwork in place, we quickly found another beautiful house. A couple days before we were due to sign the final paperwork Emma was laid off from work. It was not a big surprise as the office has been very slow for the last few months. She came in to build up a banking practice and there was no work so the newbie had to be the first to go.

Emma is actually really excited as she now has lots of time to hang out with the kids and already has several good leads and a job interview. We decided it was not the right time to buy a house so we have renewed our lease and will stay in our rental. The kids started Montessori school in September and are having a great time. The school is just around the corner from the school they went to earlier in the year, so Emma or Latha can walk them to school. Every morning when I leave on my bike Alex follows me out and reminds me to wear my helmet and to be careful while on my bike. Last week when Emma picked the kids up, Ellie's teacher let Emma know that Ellie was a very talented artist. Combined, Eric and Emma, have no artistic talent and we usually just throw away most of the blobs and scribbles of art that the kids bring home from school. Our house is not that big and we already have lots of pictures and paintings on the wall. Ellie's teacher said that the painting she did that morning was the best one she had seen in over 20 years of teaching pre-school. We are still not sure what she is talking about but what do we know? We will let you decide. We have kept this one just in case...

In November my cousin Melanie and her daughter Tricia will be pulling into Cayman on their cruise and will have a day here. Emma is going to pick them up and probably hang out at the beach with them or whatever they want to do for their day in Cayman before getting back on the ship. Emma's parents will be our first overnight visitors in November when they visit for a week. We do have room still for visitors so come on down and visit. We are planning on having our second cold weather Christmas in a row when we go to Minnesota at Christmas to see my parents and Tamara and the clan.

Now that Emma has more time and things are starting to settle down a little at school we can get back to regular blogging. Hopefully we ride out the end of November without a hurricane as the weather is already starting to cool down a little.

a Block breakfast before a big day at Montessori

the lake Aug 2009

2009-08-24T12:15:00.002+10:00

We had a wonderful two weeks at my parents house on Little Sand Lake in Minnesota this month. (Emma was only able to stay for the first week.) The first week we seemed to bring warm weather and sunshine with us and we had a great week playing on the beach, swimming and hanging out on Uncle Brad's fab pontoon boat. Alex and Ellie though stayed true to their roots which are in Oman and the Caymans. The water at the lake was way too cold for them to go swimming. Alex did fall off the dock one day and went head first into the lake. It was quite shallow and he quickly found his feet on his own. Tata Tamara was on hand to pull him out. He spent the rest of the week proudly telling everyone how he didn't cry when he went in. He also kept going on and on about how he blew bubbles and kicked with his legs when he went in. One day Alex and Ellie did try to get in when we were all swimming off the pontoon boat one afternoon. The both had looks of extreme shock on their faces when they hit the water and were out in an instant. One afternoon after watching all the Hodgins kids skiing and tubing, Ellie decided she wanted to go tubing. We got her on the tube with cousin Rowan and pushed them off. She quickly decided she wanted to change her mind. We did get her to ride along for a short ride before we had to pull her in, quite the adventure for the new two year old. One afternoon while we were on Big Sand Lake on the pontoon we anchored in a shallow area out in the middle of the lake. We were all enjoying a good swim, minus Alex and Ellie who were content to stay on the side and watch, warm and dry. Alex must have decided he had fallen in once and Ellie had missed out so he pushed Ellie in off the side. She had her life jacket on so there was no real harm done other than the surprise and shock on her face when she finally righted herself. I happened to be right there in the water and had her out in a jiffy.

We all went along to Chateau Zorba's one Sunday afternoon to hear Grandma and Papa Denny's band "The Upper Mississippians" rock the house again. The kids all love to listen and dance to the music. They also really enjoying getting to join along with a percussion piece to one of the songs up front with the band.

Most evenings we were able to have dinner at the picnic tables outside with beautiful views of the lake. One evening we had a big cake and pinatas to celebrate all the kids birthdays that we had missed during the year. Emma and I went a little overboard on the candy for the pinata and the kids were still eating candy out of their candy bags two weeks later! We had an early campfire one night so Alex and Ellie could join in. They both got to roast marshmallows and enjoy a couple smores. As usual, they had more smore on their face, hands and hair than inside them. We spent two nights sitting out on the deck one night and the pontoon boat the other, watching the Perseid meteor shower. We had some beautiful, clear star-filled nights with fantastic views of the meteors. Since Alex was getting up really early, we couldn't stay up too late but still saw a great show!

We had two mornings at the logging camp for breakfast. Since pancakes are Alex's favorite food, they had a great time. They even had more fun exploring the trails and playing on the old logging equipment. The second week the weather got much cooler as the autumn weather arrived early. I quite enjoyed the cool weather as we have lots of hot, humid weather at home whenever we want. There was much less swimming but the kids had a blast playing with all the toys and costumes in grandma's basement. We also fit in a few shopping trips to Walmart and ice cream at the old fashioned ice cream parlor at the Dorset House. After two busy weeks of little sleep, lots of playing, bike riding and having a great time with their cousins, it was time for Eric to head home with the kids on my own.

This was my first trip with both kids on my own. The first person I came across as I entered the Minneapolis airport at 0530 with the kids in their double push chair and trying to wheel two large suitcases along with my other hand, asked if I was travelling on my own. When I said yes, her reply was good luck. The lady at the check-in desk had the same response for me. When I went to get a tag for the push chair at the gate, the man took one look at me and offered me the bulkhead row as he thought it might be a bit easier for us. Half way through the flight, two weeks of little sleep and way too much stimulation finally got to Alex and he lost it. It took almost two hours to calm him down, which I am sure the people in first class in the row in front of us appreciated. A nice lady who was travelling with her family did offer Alex a large bag of gummie bears which helped to start calming him down. Northwest Airlines must have noticed that I had a very long layover in Miami and came up with an idea to help me kill time. Instead of delivering our push chair to the gate as we got off, "they forgot" and sent it to the baggage claim. I had to lug Ellie down the length of the airport while avoiding Alex or coaxing him up off the floor. We survived our five hours in the Miami airport and had a relatively calm rest of the trip. Everyone was very excited to see mummie after we finally got out of the airport just about dead-last in the warmth of the Cayman evening.

Pee pee, potty potty, pee potty pee

2009-08-03T11:18:00.002+10:00

As you can tell from the title, big things are going on in our lives here in the beautiful Caymans. Two weeks ago we moved Alex out of his cot and got him a single mattress on the floor. By now he was getting out of his sleeping bag all the time and was too big for his cot. Our big fear was he would just get up and walk out of his room when we tried to put him to bed, especially at nap time in the afternoon. Our fears were compounded when Alex kept saying "I get out" with a big smile, every time we discussed his new bed with him. We have been pleasantly surprised that we have not had any problems with him getting out of bed when putting him to sleep. He is especially excited that "I can turn around" under his covers. The only problem is convincing him to stay in bed in the morning when he wakes up "until the sun comes up". We are regularly awoken by the sound of Alex coming up the stairs to see us sometime between 0400 and 0500 every morning. One morning, on coming downstairs with him, it was evident he had been up for a while playing with his toys in the living room with the lights on.

Friday at lunch time the kids had a picnic at a local park with school. Their topic for the week had been picnics and BBQs, so they ended the week by having a real one. Parents were invited so I went along for the picnic. When I got to the park the kids were getting off the bus, lining up in classes, and then marching off to the playground. I stayed back to watch them and the two of them are so cute. As soon as they were free to to go play, Alex went in search of Ellie and brought her up the climbing frame to the big slide and helped her go down. Standing on the side I could hear Alex calling out "Ellie" or Ellie shouting for "Alex" whenever they got separated. We had a fun picnic, chasing the chickens around, enjoying the sun and food. Coincidentally, it was Alex and Ellie's last day of school. Next week we go to Minnesota for a couple weeks and in September they start at Montessori.

Yesterday Alex and Eric stayed in all day to learn to use the potty. We have a cute small potty for Alex that he can use on his own. It even makes a special noise when he puts something in the potty. As our guide I used the book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" (over 2 million copies sold). It was written in 1974 and supposedly is a classic. After one day I would have to say we are not quite there yet after more than a day. For various reasons, we have had to modify some of the techniques in the book. Very quickly Alex knew to go to the potty, could pull his shorts down and sit down. He could get up, pull up his shorts, pull the tray out from the potty and carry it into the bathroom. (We are doing the training in the kitchen!) Once to the bathroom he empties the tray into the toilet and flushes then returns to the potty and puts the tray back. I am amazed watching him go through the whole process on his own, very proud of what he can do. Lots of Hershey chocolate kisses were part of the success. The only stumbling block is getting Alex to pee in the potty. At the end of the first day it was pee-on-the-floor 8: pee-in-the-potty 3. We are making progress, it is just getting Alex to hold on until he gets to the potty.

Alex and Ellie continue to love swimming in the pool and are making good progress. A couple days ago while Alex and I were swimming, we came across a crab on the bottom of the deep end. Alex was excited that there was finally an actual sea creature in the pool. Either it was a land crab that accidentally ended up in the pool or an escapee from a neighbor's kitchen. Either way, crabs don't fare well in fresh, chlorinated water. We were careful not to get too close to avoid "waking him up". Alex found my old snorkel a couple weeks ago and insists on using it when swimming in the pool. The mouthpiece is too big for his mouth so he just chews on one half, which means he can't actual breath through it. He won't swim without it though. I bought him a kids snorkel which will fit entirely in his mouth. He loves using it but I still don't think he breathes through it. It is funny watching him swim around the pool with his mask and snorkel on, coming up and telling me about the fish and mermaids he has seen. A few weeks earlier he went on a school trip to ride on the tourist submarine. He still won't stop talking about the fish he saw and especially the "diver man" with the bubbles feeding the fish.

Emma and I were watching the swimming world championships on TV this afternoon. Alex woke up from his nap and came out while we were watching the men's 1500m. He plopped down on the sofa and started watching with us. Within a few seconds he was transfixed and watching intently. When the race was over and they started to go to the ads, Alex was excitedly shouting at the TV and us; "more, more". Good to see we have another swimming fan in the family. Later this afternoon in the pool Alex started doing a pretty good freestyle arms which he has never done before. He said he was copying the swimmers on TV.

The next big adventure the kids are already planning for is the airplane trip to Grandma's next Friday, Aug 7. They are playing a lot of airplane and getting ready for lots of swimming and playing with the cousins.

Ie Shima

2009-07-30T04:59:00.003+10:00

From Aug 1994 to Aug 1995, while still in the Marine Corps, I was the Officer-in-Charge of the Operations Support Detachment Ie Shima. Ie Shima is a small island off the west coast of Okinawa, Japan. It is a small island you can only get to by air or on the ferry. There is a small local community of farmers and fisherman as well as a couple hotels. My detachment was only 11 Marines. We were responsible for the training range on the west end of the island. At the time it was one of the top training ranges for all services in the Western Pacific. Helicopter, AV-8B Harrier jets and C-130 aircraft used the runway regularly. We also supported parachute operations, small boat operations, and all sorts of training exercises across the land areas of the range. Being the senior military officer on the island, I was viewed by the local Japanese community with the same respect as the local mayor. We also let the farmers keep their goats on the range (there was no live fire on the range) and come cut the grass to feed their cattle. This also meant we got to help catch the goats for special occasions and join in the preparation and feasts.

I remember when the Japanese phone company hired one of Japan's top film directors to do some commercials and ads for them. He wanted to do them on the island and on our range. The production company came out to ask permission and took me out for a wonderful dinner to discuss the details. We had a wonderful relationship with the locals and we all loved our time on the island. The island is mostly famous as the place where the famous war reporter Ernie Pyle was killed during the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945. There is a small memorial park on the island to Ernie Pyle and the Marines are responsible for the upkeep of the park and hold a ceremony every April to remember him. Dignitaries come from Okinawa, mainland Japan, and lots of senior US military and WWII veterans.

In the spring of 1995 I was informed by headquarters that there would be two WWII vets and their wives visiting the island. They had gone through their Senator in Texas to arrange all permission and I was instructed to show them around and provide any help I could. They were going to stay at the YYY resort on the island. Both vets had been in the Army Air Force and flown fighters from the airfield on Ie Shima during WWII. They were very nice and it was a pleasure to show them around the island and listen to their stories from their time on the island. Neither had been married during WWII and they both joked with their wives that they had received "Dear John" letters from their sweethearts at the time, while stationed here. We had some excellent dinners and they enjoyed reliving some of their WWII experiences. After I returned to San Diego in the fall of 1995, they contacted me to tell me their old unit from their time in Ie Shima was holding a reunion in San Diego and invited me to be the guest speaker at their dinner. I had a fantastic time at the reunion and enjoyed hearing even more stories and being able to tell them how important such a small island still was to the military. The two gentlemen who had visited Ie Shima had told me that they had been flying fighter escort for the bombers that dropped the atomic bombs. One of them shared with me a letter he had written home to his parents after witnessing this sobering moment. I would like to close my reminiscing with his letter dated August 9, 1945. Sometimes history is more powerful in the first person, as it happens.

"Of course, the topic on everyone's lips is the atomic bomb. Will they or won't they quit? When you receive this, perhaps it will all be history, but I doubt if the Japs will throw in the sponge very quickly. Isn't it an amazing weapon, though? I just happened to be looking at the horizon to my left from "Cherry's" cockpit when it seemed as though there was a sunrise at midday. The horizon, even in the brilliant light of near-noon, became a vivid and awful orange. It truly was a horrifying sight. Then before ten minutes had elapsed, a symmetrical cloud column had risen high into the sky. With our gunsights we estimated the cloud to be fifty thousand feet high. It made us all feel rather humble, if not futile. E.M.C. Jr."

ALEX TURNS 3

2009-07-16T09:03:00.009+10:00

Alex turned 3 yesterday and had a nice party at school that Ellie was allowed to go upstairs to join. He has come a long way in 3 years. At Burger King for ice cream the day before his birthday he showed how he has grown into his role as a big brother. There was a large poster with all the Transformer toys available in kids meals. Ellie kept pointing to the pink motorcycle she had gotten last week and saying "my bike, my bike" as she believes most of what she sees is hers. (I think this comes from us always calling her a princess.) Some of Alex's classmates from school were there and also starting pointing to the bike saying "my bike, my bike". Alex quickly jumped in and starting defending his sister by saying "no, Ellie's bike" and stood in front of the picture so the other boys could not point at it anymore. He stayed in front of the picture for quite a while refusing to allow anyone else to claim the bike as theirs. As a send off to his 2's he threw his biggest tantrum to date while we were in Burger King for ice cream. He got upset it was time to go and ended up on the floor screaming and crying and clinging to my leg as I tried to walk across the floor. I think he has done a good hand-off to Ellie as she jumped right into the role of cheeky, naughty 2 year old. On the way home from ice cream Alex was screaming for fun in the car and I reminded him they were not allowed to scream in the car. His reply was "Can we scream at home?" Perhaps the lawyer in his mummy is rubbing off on him. He loves to remind mum when he finds her shoes around the house that she needs to put them in the shoe rack by the front door.

By coincidence constitution day here is just a couple days after July 4 so we get a bank holiday weekend on the 4th of July. Alex and Ellie wore their special outfits to school the day before to show they are all-American kids. The next weekend Ellie actually got to have a play date when her friend Amelia from school came over on Sunday morning with her family for breakfast and a busy morning in the pool. Ellie loves to paddle around the pool with her float belt on and Alex is getting good at swimming around completely on his own with no floats and can even swim to the bottom to pick up his little seals.

For his birthday he got a train, an airplane and a "Cars" umbrella. (Ellie also had to have an umbrella as she believes she is the same age and for a month-and-a-half she is technically correct!) Later that afternoon they were playing outside with the umbrellas even though there was no hint of rain. it still amazes me what kids find so entertaining.

After much hassle, effort and frustration, mostly at the British, Latha finally arrived this afternoon. It finally took getting a transit visa for a 3 hour layover in Heathrow. It took 5 days, several sets of photos, money, lots of paperwork and numerous trips to a variety of British Embassy sites in Muscat so she could change planes in London. The kids are so excited to see her and I think she had one whole suitcase of presents for them.

We are off to Minnesota to visit the family on Aug 7. It will be great to see the American clan again. In preparation for starting work the end of August I have started a website that is a little bit about maths. Even if you are not one of my students you should check it out. I also have another blog which is devoted to maths and school. Mr Block's maths home

GRADUATION

2009-07-03T12:02:00.003+10:00

Last Sunday the kids school had their graduation ceremony. Alex and Ellie are too young to be graduating, the ceremony was for the four year olds who were graduating nursery and ready to move on to the big kids school for kindergarten next year. We went because Alex's class were to be flag holders for the procession of graduates as they paraded up to the stage. Ellie's group was to perform a little song.

We arrived just in time for the start and the hall was packed. The ceremony was at a local hall that was set up very fancy. Alex went shy right away and would only stand in his spot with his flag if mummy sat with him. Even being next to his girlfriend didn't help with his shyness. (Yes he used to have a girlfriend back in Muscat but she moved away to Africa and has never called or written him since, so he has moved on!) To the tune of "Pomp and Circumstances" the nine four year olds paraded down the middle of the seating area, past Alex's class holding their little Cayman flags, and up onto the stage where all the staff and guests were seated. All the kids were in their green traditional graduation caps and gowns. One of the graduates was overcome with sadness at having to leave nursery and was in tears the whole time. (Maybe it was just his fear of having to go to kindergarten next year!)

There were lots of poems and songs by the graduates and speeches by the teachers and staff. There was a speech by the guest of honor. While the speech was interesting, I think she forgot that most of the audience were kids under four and their parents. Once the four year olds loose their focus, the parents then loose theirs. In our case it involved chasing Alex around the hall as he dragged a large balloon sculpture after him. There was a large pot luck buffet set up in the back of the hall. Ellie spent her time walking along the tables naming the food and trying to get into the cakes. Ellie's group did a good job with their little teddy bear song and the ceremony was really nice.

We all had a good time and happy there was no valedictory speech!

UPDATE FROM THE ISLAND

2009-07-02T11:12:00.004+10:00

It has been a while since I have written so I will try to quickly mention what we have been up to. It is amazing how time goes so quickly when you are in a routine with two little ones who never let you get into a groove no matter how hard you try.

On Friday before fathers day we had a luncheon at the kids school. They had made cards for me and some other presents and we got to all have lunch together. The kids have now become water rats. They are really enjoying swimming in the pool and it is now hard to get them out. Alex wears his mask and is swimming well on his own. Ellie just puts on her float belt or water wings and floats around the pool on her own not worried if she ends up on the other end of the pool from me. She spends her whole time smiling saying "look at me, look at me" which is her new favorite phrase. She also loves to walk around telling everyone who will listen "I'm a princess!"

On Saturday, June 20 I participate in the Flowers One Mile Sea Swim. It is a huge annual event here that had almost 750 swimmers. There was a large number of swimmers from all over the world including a large contingent of kids from Australia and lots of current and past Olympians. Check out the web site for details on all the Olympians as well as the results. It was cool to swim against the likes of Ian Crocker, Neil Walker, Anthony Nesty, Kirsty Kowal and others. Ryan Lockte was here on the beach chatting with swimmers and posing for pictures but did not swim as he is prepping for World Championships in a couple months. The water is warm and crystal clear and there is lots of prize money as well as loads of raffle give-aways at the end for all finishers. I hadn't swum a stroke in over two months and had a slight course misunderstanding. I thought the buoys marked the course and I had to stay seaward of them. After about a half mile it finally occurred to me that everyone else was swimming just off the beach and I was actually off the course. I had to head back in to shore. I still managed a 71st finish so there is lots of room for improvement next year. The race was won by Shaune Fraser, a local swimmer who now swims for University of Florida. He recently won the NCAA 200 free and fly with a NCAA record for the fly. His brother was close behind who is also at Florida. Anyone who is a swimmer or wants an excuse to head down here should come swim next year. After the swim we had fun playing on the beach hoping to win a raffle prize. After living on the beach for seven weeks and showing no interest in swimming at the beach Alex has suddenly taking to the waves. One of his best friends from school Zeke was there as his mom had done the swim. They kept the entire beach entertained running naked up and down the beach and through the waves. The sight of me chasing them down the beach shouting at them to stop brought a lot of chuckles from beach-goers.

The rain has become more regular but we have only had one day when it rained all day. It rains a lot during the night and is nice during the day. The rain at night brings out the frogs and the chorus is deafening. The rain has also brought out the land crabs. We had a large one trying to get in our back door the other night. We figured he lost his way after a big night out. A friend of Emma's works on the Humane Society Animal hot line so we called her and she explained it is time for the land crabs to come out. We did not find out whether we should help them find their way into our kitchen!

We just learned that Latha arrives on Saturday evening, so July 4 will be a true Independence day for us! Our offer on a home has also been accepted. We still need to have a survey done and get the financing, but it is looking good. We will be planning to move in during October when our lease here runs out. The house is across the street from the ocean, a short stroll to town and has a huge yard and pool. It is just one block from Eden Point, which is the best snorkel ling spot on the island. We will keep you updated on the progress of the sale and then we look forward to seeing everyone.

2 2's

2009-06-11T11:28:00.006+10:00

The title is not a maths puzzle but highlights the fact that Ellie turned two today which means we now have two two year olds without twins! We got Ellie a large Little Tykes kitchen for her birthday and I spent last night putting it together and trying to get the stickers in the right spot. I now know how I will be spending Christmas eve in the future! Ellie had a big cake and party at school and Alex even got to take a break from his academics to join her party. He had to make up the work he missed colouring and ordering numbers for homework? Ellie has been revelling in being a birthday girl and liked the book she got from school so much she had to bring it to bed with her. She spent the afternoon after our swim polishing off the rest of the birthday cake.

Hurricane season has officially begun and we are all ready with lots of food, water and lights all ready in case we get hit bad. It has started to rain more but it pours for an hour and then clears up. A couple weeks ago the kids had an open house at their school on Saturday. The kids really enjoy large bouncy castles and Ellie gets in there and bounces with the big kids. They were also introduced to sno cones and cotton candy. They loved the sno cones which were refreshing on a very hot day. Even though the cotton candy looked like lots of purple fun neither of them really liked it. This revelation came long after they were covered in it!

The boxes are finally all gone and the pictures up on the wall. The dining room table finally appeared again which means we don't have to always dine at the coffee table. I am finally getting through the major problem which has been power. When we left the States in 2002 we had to get rid of almost all our electrical items since the voltage in the UK is 200 volts. Oman was also 220 volts so we could bring all our stuff with us. We have now moved back to 110 volts (This is a British overseas territory so why don't they stick with the mother country??). This means we had to leave most of our appliances again. Some of the small items are dual voltage so we could bring those and we had a couple items which were not dual voltage but we decided it was worth it to bring them. We now have them going with a voltage converter. Then add to it all the issues of different TV systems and types and regions of DVD's and you have a major international incident trying to get everything working. We have accumulated DVD's from everywhere and I am having some issues. I am slowing getting through them and getting all the required appliances and entertainment up and running. We have also acquired a second car, a 1996 Honda CRV ( the most common type of car on the island ) for Emma to use for her commute to work. The parking lot is so tight at her office she needed something a little smaller. It is a right hand drive from Japan so smaller than the version you would find in the States.

I have been doing a little work getting ready for next school year. I was part of the phone interview for a new maths teacher we need for next year. We found a good candidate who is currently teaching at a British school in Spain whose school is a victim of the European economy and is having to cut back. I have also been working with the head on getting some curriculum changes made and ordering new software we need. It is great that they are letting me be involved before I start.

The last time I went shopping for a bike I was looking for the latest in racing and technology. I have now passed into a new phase in my life. I just purchased a Huffy which has a rack on back, full fenders on both wheels, only 5 speeds and a kick stand! And I spent weeks trying to find just the right bike. Emma can attest to how excited I was with my new bike. This is cruising land, all flat and never far to go so I am already to cruise to town and work. We are looking forward to our 2 2's, but also looking forward to Alex being promoted to 3 next month.

Boxes,Boxes go away

2009-05-27T11:08:00.006+10:00

I am sorry we have been silent for a while but Monday morning, May 4 they delivered our shipment and we are just getting out from under the pile of boxes. Our 20 foot shipping container in the drive was almost as big as our house. The way they do customs here is the customs agents come to your house and check your stuff while they unload it. They would randomly cut open boxes to see what was in the box. The agents were very impressed with how well packed our stuff was and how difficult it was to get through all the packing to see what was inside. This is a great ad for Writer, the company which packed all our stuff in Muscat. Everything made it and was in the appropriate number of pieces! Our house here is much smaller than our place in Muscat and mostly furnished. This means we have a lot of stuff that we don't need or will not fit so we have a storage unit not too far away by the airport. It is difficult planning a move here where most places are furnished but you can't be sure what will be in the house you buy or rent.

We have slowly been getting through the boxes, finding what we need, and sending the rest to our storage unit. The kids adore the "new house" and cheer every time we turn the corner and see the "new house". We are in a small complex of 12 townhouses. We have a large fenced yard as we are one of the end units and there is a pool which we usually have to ourselves.

One of the benefits of living in the Western Hemisphere is the opportunity to see more of my family in the States. Last week we took advantage of two holidays Emma had from work ( National Day and the National Election day which comes once every four years) to go to Minneapolis to see my sister Tamara and her family and my parents. We barely made it to the airport here on Friday morning, May 15. The lady gave us a lecture about arriving one hour before departure while pointing to her watch and showing us how it was 59 minutes till departure. When we reached the check in I realized I had left the car seats in the car. Fortunately the long term car park is about 100 metres from the terminal. (It is a very, very small airport.) I was able to run back to the car to retrieve them. When we booked Emma's visa online as part of the visa waiver program the Homeland Security site made it clear we did not need to print out a copy to bring with us while travelling, as all the info would be in the computer. Of course, the airline was also upset with us at check in for not having a copy, even though there was no mention of needing a copy on their website. Confusion still reins as we noticed each time we went through security during the trip. We made it on the flight to Atlanta where we were changing for our flight to Minneapolis. While having dinner in the Atlanta airport Alex suddenly became very ill and started throwing up. We knew that there was a 24 hour throwing up bug going around the Caymans as friends kids had it the previous week. Our concern now was someone would notice Alex throwing up and with a very high fever and think he might have swine flu and throw us all in quarantine for our trip. I forgot to pack a spare shirt so he went shirtless. As we got on the plane for Minneapolis the flight attendant noticed our shirtless kid and we just said he got his shirt all dirty while having dinner. No one needed to know about the throwing up!

We had a fabulous visit in Minneapolis with my sister Tamara, husband Brad and all five kids. My mom and dad were also down from up north. Alex and Ellie had a blast with all their older cousins and Grandma. Emma and I had a chance to go out for several nice dinners without kids and do some shopping for essentials. On Sunday we all went out on their very comfy pontoon boat on Lake Minnetonka. The weather was gorgeous and we stopped at Fletchers be the lake for a tasty lunch. On the way home we stopped at a small island in the lake and got off to play and explore. Alex got his first taste of a real bike and quickly took to peddling all around the neighborhood on his cousin's bike with training wheels.

We had a smooth flight home except for some ticket issues again when checking in both in Minneapolis and Miami while changing planes. While checking in at Minneapolis two of our three bags were overweight so I played a fun game of rearrange items from one bag to another to a carry on bag while reweighing after each move. We finally got each bag to within limit to avoid any fees. Our total weight had not changed, just what was in each bag. We have not been on a US domestic flight since we moved away in 2002 and you quickly realize how much nicer international air travel is! We got home in time for bed on Wednesday 20 May and even though they had a wonderful time the kids were both still excited to see the "new house" when we came around the corner. There were many requests the next few days for Grandma and for Ro ro (their eldest cousin Rowan, who is wonderful with the kids).

Friday night the kids had a movie and pizza night at their nursery school. I dropped them off with their pillow for a night of "Stuart Little", popcorn and Dominoes. Ellie was the youngest as her class wasn't actually invited but they made an exception since she and Alex are so close. Alex was holding onto me and didn't want me to leave . I kept trying to sell him by mentioning all his friends were there, they would have popcorn and pizza and they were going to watch a movie. Alex was not convinced but Ellie just got more excited at each activity. Sometimes she is more grown up than Alex.

Saturday morning we went to get bikes as Alex is now hooked on cycling. Since Ellie believes she is the same age as Alex we had to get her a bike also even though she is not close to pedalling on her own yet. Alex got a "Cars" bike and Ellie got a Dora the Explorer bike. Ellie's even has Dora's special backpack on the handle bars with a special map in it, just like Dora has. Alex puts on his helmet and tears around the front parking area of the complex. He can weave around the cars and only goes tumbling off when he veers into the grass. Ellie just likes to push hers around and occasionally sit on it and look cool. She is not even very interested in allowing me to push her. Alex also enjoys riding Ellie's bike around and this does bother her. The other day we were all sitting on the sofa when she spilled some juice. With her cheeky smile she just said "Daddy clean it up." At this time last year Alex could only say a couple of words.

Saturday afternoon we went to Petapalooza. It is an annual event to raise money for the local animal shelter. There were ten live bands, the surf wave was open as well as the skate park. Everyone brought their dogs. All pets were invited but I don't think it was the kind of event cats would want to be at. There were also two huge inflatable slides. It didn't faze Ellie that most of the kids tearing up it were four or five times older than her. She made it to the top before getting scared and crying. An older girl was nice enough to slide down with her. She just wanted to do it all over again and did, crying when she got to the top and waiting for an older kid to slide down with her again.

We are finally getting settled in and the kids are really enjoying themselves. I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer. Hopefully we will be able to stay more current now that we are settled in.

Diarrhea Man

2009-05-03T11:09:00.007+10:00

Thanks for all the birthday wishes from everyone last week. To celebrate my 43rd we all spent last Sunday exploring the east and north of the island that we haven't seen yet. The island is gorgeous and we started in Kaibo which is all the way in the north. It is a beautiful little beach with great views across north sound and not many people around. Then we went to Rum Point which is also on the north end and wandered around and had a nice lunch. The water is gorgeous and the kids had fun running on the pier. We even ran into a friend of Alex's that we had met at the kids indoor play area a few weeks earlier. Ellie had helped herself to several of the girls Dunkin donut holes back then and this time the girl helped herself to half of Alex's cookie which didn't seem to bother him. He has got the way of the world worked out pretty good for a two year old! For dinner we had take out from the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate.

Alex has taken to wearing his mask in the bath. He keeps saying he is a diver man but it keeps coming out diarrhea. Emma and I wet ourselves as he keeps saying "Alex diarrhea, Alex diarrhea" and keep expecting the water to go brown!. He loves swimming with the mask and we have to pry it off his face when we put him to sleep.

It has been a busy week that culminated with us getting the keys to our house Friday morning, May 1. Of course there was no power when we went in that morning but it was quickly sorted. I spent all week trying to get all the requirements arranged for our move, power, water, TV and Internet. the Internet still hasn't been set up so as of tomorrow we may be silent on the digital front for a couple days. It was refreshing to see that even though the Caymans is the fifth largest financial centre in the world, it is still not always straight forward to get these everyday necessities arranged. We started moving our things in and are really looking forward to the delivery of our shipment scheduled for Monday morning. Three months of living out of suitcases will soon be done. The house is mostly furnished with sofas, beds, dining table, all appliances, and most of what you need for the kitchen. We are now sorting out what goodies we still need to make it home. All of our stuff from Muscat will not fit so we have a storage unit arranged for the extras.

Alex went on his first school field trip this week. They went to the fire station. For a little boy that just loves large vehicles, he has not been able to stop talking about the fire trucks all week. Today the TV install men were in the house setting up the satellite TV. (We will have Dish TV). Alex spent the whole morning standing next to the install man saying "man what are you doing? man what are you doing?" They were very good with Alex and did not seem too bothered.

The highlight of the week, especially for an American was to go to the law courts and see Emma admitted to the court of the Caymans. One of the named partners presented her credentials to the judge after all the pomp of the judge's entrance. I have to admit that even though I have lived through all of it, I sounded very impressive when he went through her career. The judge made a nice speech after confirming that all her documents were in order. She was already in the traditional black robe. After the judge officially admitted her to the court of the Caymans she got to put her wig on. I don't mean she has gone blond or ginger but the funny gray wig you see on all the British TV shows. As she doesn't do much work in court she won't be wearing it again soon but it was lots of fun to see. After the ceremony the judge came down from his bench to shake hands with Emma and congratulate her. He also said that she was the first person he has admitted who has practiced in Oman!

Tomorrow, Sunday, we move into our new house officially and will say goodbye to our view of the sunset from our living room across the beautiful beach. We are really excited to be able to finally settle in and get back to some normalcy. The kids are also really keen to get into the swimming pool Now that we are into our house we have the room so the officially come visit us sign is now up.

Tiny Tots Olympics (Sportsday)

2009-04-26T03:58:00.006+10:00

April 25, 2009 saw the athletic event of the year take place, the Tiny Tots Olympics. Tiny Tots is Alex and Ellie's nursery school. The athletes were kitted out in their house colour t-shirts; the bluebirds, the green parrots and the red robins, the house of Alex and Ellie. Even many of the parents were sporting house t-shirts.

The activities began with a parade of the athletes by house, each house having a large banner. There was motivational kid's music playing and the standing room only crowd was rumoured to contain a few non-family members or staff! Few could hear the music over the wailing and tears of the contestants as they were forced from the play rooms with all the toys, leave their mummy and daddy, and made to walk out onto the field. There were orange slices and Gatorade for the contestants. The field was freshly manicured with red, blue and green lines to mark the track.

Many a controversy occurred throughout the morning. Their were many claims that runners had run outside their lane, a common occurrence with the one to four year old crowd. There were birth certificate checks to verify the ages. Alex, who is not yet three, was running against some much larger three year olds. Measurements had to be retaken and records challenged as the 50m run was most certainly not even 30m. For some the pressure was too much and they froze on the track, crying for mummy, unable to live up to the high expectations of their cheering house members and their sponsors; the hot dog stand and an unnamed chip company hawking their wares in the stands. It was rumoured the windy conditions were above allowable limits and many more record runs are currently under challenge. Many a younger competitor had to be led down the track as they were unsure what they were doing and why they were not watching cartoons at home on a Saturday morning. Many a parent was wondering the same. Not us, as ours are always up by 0530 these days. There were also some inspiring shows of sportsmanship. When the one year old girl from the green parrots went down headfirst in the grass, the red robin competitor came up and lay face down in the grass next to her, refusing to take any advantage from her misfortune.

Besides the track events, there were also some field events. There was the colour match, the string large beads and then run, and the ever challenging event of running, stopping to put shoes on then continuing to the finish line. These were largely for the older kids and do not make good spectator events.

It was a fun morning and Ellie decided rather than run she would cheer on her house and eat all the food she could get her hands on. Alex ran the three year old 50 meter dash. (As alluded to earlier the distance was questionable which is a good thing) As he lined up to run, crocks securely on his feet, he had me put his spider man shades on in an attempt to psych out his opponents. He ran a good race, inspired on by mummy sitting at the finish line. He stayed in his lane and showed good running form for a Block.

This was our first school event as parents and I am sure we have many more years of events to look forward to. Look for the highlights on Sportscenter later or maybe Transworld Sports, or CNN.

Ellie takes care of her brother

2009-04-25T04:00:00.002+10:00

We just got home from school and I thought I should share another brother sister moment. Since neither of the kids took a nap yesterday and then awoke again at 0500 this morning, they were both exhausted after school and were snoring loudly shortly after we left school in the car. Again I had to carry both at the same time with their bags across the compound and up the stairs. At the top of the stairs I put Alex down so I could get the key out. By the front door we have a small bucket with water so you can wash the sand off your feet before going inside. Alex was so tired he fell backwards and landed right in the bucket with his bum and his shirt and shorts were soaked. Being exhausted he didn't find it as amusing as I did and was crying and screaming. I quickly got them inside and had Alex dry and ready for his nap. As I was zipping him up in his sleeping bag Ellie came running in the room with his toy helicopter from the movie "Cars". This instantly cheered him up. She then went running off saying "airplane, airplane" and shortly returned with two of Alex's favorite airplanes for him to take to bed. The smile on Ellie's face and her good deed cheered us all up and Alex went off to his nap happy. Hopefully all this love will translate into a long nap now.....

Fatherhood

2009-04-24T10:50:00.004+10:00

We have settled into a regular routine. Emma is settling in to work and I drop the kids at nursery in the morning and pick them up at lunch time. We are excited about being able to move into our house on May 1. While we enjoy the condo on the beach it will be nice to have more space and a fenced yard. Our container has also arrived so hopefully it will be through customs and we will be able to have our stuff shortly after we move in. We have been living out of our suitcases for close to three months now.

Last weekend we finally had a chance to do more exploring of our gorgeous island. On Sundays everything is closed here, all shops and even the large grocery stores. Only the restaurants are open. We drove east along the southern coast and found a beautiful tiny beach called Heritage Beach. We were the only ones there and the kids enjoyed playing in the sand and the shallow water. As Ellie has had some bad nappie rash she was running around naked. At one point I had to go to the bushes to pee and take in the beautiful view. Ellie wandered over to see what I was doing and while standing next to me enjoying the view she had a pee too! My little girl making her daddy proud!

The other day we had called Emma's sister Clare in the UK to wish her happy birthday. Alex has just started actually talking to people on the phone and enjoyed talking with his auntie Clare. Ellie had her chance but just likes to listen and smile at the phone. Just before hanging up Emma asked Alex is he wanted to say "Happy Birthday to Clare again"?. He gave his big smile and said yes. She handed him the phone and he said "Happy Birthday again." Daddy is so proud that Alex has inherited his sense of humour.

When I pick the kids up from nursery at lunch I usually pick Alex up first since his class is upstairs and then we go down to get Ellie. Alex usually has some piece of art he has created. As soon as Ellie sees Alex walk in her class she runs to him and they give each other a big hug. Ellie then takes Alex's project and starts admiring it. If Ellie has made one of her own Alex admires it and is always very impressed. They are very cute together and seem to have a sense of what the other wants and try to cheer the other up if one is sad or in trouble. When they fall out, Ellie has learned to bite and has given Alex some nice tattoos!

We spend the afternoons playing at the airport park, the beach, or the indoor kids play area. I am enjoying having this time with the kiddies. We are also planning a trip to Minneapolis to visit my sister Tamara and her family and my parents. Emma has a long weekend so we are adding a couple days. Cayman national elections are in May and it is a public holiday so we are taking advantage of being so close to the States to go see family and maybe a little shopping. Once we move into our new place we will have lots of space for visitors so come on down and see us.

A man and his (mini) van

2009-04-11T11:41:00.004+10:00

Yesterday we took possession of our new 2002, burgundy Chevy Venture. Yes, we joined the minivan cult. Those of you without kids may be chuckling at us, but Alex and Ellie think it is the coolest car around and constantly want to go drive in the bus! ( They like it much better than our rental SUV) Alex even told me the bus was cool! The magic doors that open and close all on their own bring a look of wonder to Alex's face. The other day I also got my Cayman driver license to add to my US one and my Omani one. (I never did get a UK license when we lived in London even though I should have, according to the authorities). The Cayman license was the easiest, as all you have to do is show your US one and they take your picture and money and you are set. In Oman you had to do an eye test, which of course I failed since they test both eyes, not just your choice of one, like in the States. It took a lot of talking to the policeman, who didn't understand what I was saying, and eventually after talking to his superior they just let me have it.

The kids are settling in well at nursery and enjoyed all their Easter activities and especially their Easter baskets when they left on Thursday. The entire drive home they wanted "chocolate, chocolate", which then continued after they woke up from their naps. Friday and Monday are holidays here so we have a long weekend. Most of which I have already spent at the airport park. I am doing ok in my role of Mr Dad and learning quickly. I have most of my tasks mastered and running smoothly, taking kids to school, shopping, laundry, dishes, packing the kids lunch and bags for school each day, etc. The area I struggle in is getting them dressed each morning. I have never had a flair for fashion and cannot match colours. At least if I was colour blind I would have an excuse I could use. The fashion side is a bit easier as all Alex has is shorts and t-shirts and Ellie has some dresses to go with her shorts and shirts selection. The other morning I had a nice pink shirt from with a pretty picture of Holland on it to match her shorts. Ellie was not interested but Alex saw it and wanted to wear it. That sounded good to me so he had a shirt, but of course it did not go with the shorts I had for him. Ellie was happy to wear his tie-dye shirt which of course did not match the shorts I had for her. (They are almost the same size which is handy for nappies and clothes.) I think it is great they want to pick their own clothes, but of course Emma was horrified when she saw the kiddies all ready to go to school looking like fashion school dropouts. I am proud of their dress sense and they were off to school happy and content.

We have a couple of Easter egg hunts for Sunday that we are looking forward to. I also guess we will be spending a lot more time this Easter weekend at the airport park. Enjoy your Easter and may all your eggs be chocolate!

My Left Foot

2009-04-04T10:53:00.005+10:00

Today I had another x-ray of my foot taken to see how it was healing. The broken bone is slowly fusing together but I am not ready to start running again yet. This is getting frustrating sitting here watching lots of people run up and down the beach by our window and not be able to get out there myself. I did get into the water this week and had some lovely ocean swims up and down just off our beach. It is a beautiful place to swim with crystal clear water. I also had a meeting at school this week to finalize our timetable for next year. It is nice being in the position to be involved in planning for next year which would be much harder if I were not here on Island.

The kids finished their first full week of nursery. They are adorable every morning going to school with their backpacks and hats. Ellie still cries every morning when I drop her off but she soon settles down and has lots of fun. The ladies who watch after her group are amazed at her eating abilities, the way she uses a spoon or fork and chows down her food and then starts on theirs. She also impressed with her ability to put a whole rice cracker in her mouth whole and then eat it. She is definitely taking after her dad. Alex is the old hand who plays it cool while we drop Ellie off first at her class then go upstairs to his class. He is by far the youngest in his class but is doing well and always has a big grin on his face when I pick him up at lunch. It is nice that Emma can come sometimes also to pick them up. We still only have one rental car so we drop her off at work in the mornings and go get her in the evenings. The kids are very impressed that "Mommy go to work today."

Our favorite hang out in the afternoons is the airport park. Their are some great climbing frames, slides, swings and open space at the park. The parking lot is right next to the runway. We stand at the fence not more than 100 metres from the runway and wave at all the planes as they land and take-off. The kids get a huge kick out off seeing the planes from up close. Everyone on the planes must think we are the local greeters there to welcome them to the island and to wish them luck on their trip home! Ellie still believes she is the same age as Alex. She follows him up and down the climbing frames and slides. This terrifies me as she still topples over when walking. Today she started climbing up a curved ladder Alex just mastered a few days ago. Just to prove a point she insisted on carrying her little teddy bear blanket in one hand and refused to give it up to her terrified dad. During a major melt down Alex had this afternoon as the result of refusing his nap today, Ellie figured she should start crying to. Alex abruptly stopped crying and said "No Ellie cry, no Ellie cry". They are very cute together when they are not working on maiming one another.

We think we have finally found somewhere to live full time, at least for the next six months. We decided on a lovely town home with 4 bedrooms, a very large yard and a pool in the complex. It is less than a mile from the kids' current nursery and also from the Montesori they will start at in September. It is also less than a mile to my new school and about a mile-and-a-half to the coast. Unfortunately, we cannot move in until May 1 so we are stuck in our beach condo until then. Once we move we will have plenty of space for visitors, so be looking for us off the left side of the plane waving to you as you land!

Driving in the Caymans is interesting. We drive on the left side of the road British style, but the cars seem about 50/50 right side drive/left side drive. It appears the max speed limit on the entire island is 40 mph. Traffic at certain times of the day is just horrendous also. Mostly a result of small roads and everyone working in one small city with the same hours, compounded by thousands of cruise ship visitors crossing the roads in the small downtown around the port.

We love Cayman more every day as we get to explore and see more. Last Sunday we were invited for brunch at a friend of Emma's from work who has a son Alex's age and another older boy. Some friends of friends of ours in Muscat also came over with their kids. Alex and Ellie had a great time playing with the kids and all the great toys they had, as will as swimming in the pool. Everyone is very friendly, relaxed and helpful. To quote the ending of the same book on the Caymans I mentioned last time, "Caymanians know that the time to be happy is now and the place to be happy is here. Man, this is paradise, dis is Cayman!"

CAUTION, IGUANA CROSSING

2009-03-29T11:10:00.006+10:00

"There are 50,000 people living in grand Cayman, a beach 5.5 miles long, no river, over 400 banks, more than 90 churches, 2 prisons, 7 traffic lights, 1 bridge, and many,many chickens." This is the beginning of a book I found on life in the Caymans this week.

When Emma first drove back into our complex after picking up the rental car she saw the iguana crossing sign and just figured it was one of those funny tourist signs you see. That was until she almost ran over a large iguana in the middle of the parking lot. There are lots of large iguanas that hang out in the parking lot and lots of smaller lizards all around our complex. At first Ellie was afraid of the small lizards and she would make us pick her up when we walked past areas that were known lizard hang outs. Now she is fascinated by the big iguanas, tries to chase them around and wants to pet them!

It has been another busy week. Looking at a lot more houses and we also started looking for a car. Alex and Ellie went to their first day of nursery on Thursday. Alex did a year of nursery back in Muscat but this was Ellie's first day ever. We assumed it would be easier to leave Alex first then take Ellie down to her class. When we all walked into Alex's new class he went to the corner on his own and started playing with some toys. Ellie saw all the three year olds sitting in the corner singing so she walked right over, sat right down in the middle of the group and tried to join in. Next the teacher had them all sit at the tables and she held up a card with animals on it. Ellie jumped up saying "animals, animals" and started naming them before any of the other kids had a chance; "zebra, giraffe, elephant". Finally I had to take Ellie down to her class first. She eagerly made herself at home and Alex and I went back upstairs. After a while he finally settled in and they both had a good day. The only bad moment Ellie had was when she saw Alex in the playground and started crying because she wanted to see her brother! They will be going five mornings a week starting this Monday.

We have also been to the butterfly farm, the mothers playgroup, and spent a lot of time at the many parks with amazing climbing frames. Alex and Ellie are quickly becoming quite the little climbers and enjoying all the big slides. Today Alex had his first real haircut. Up until now Emma has just tried to cut little bits where she could. We have tried the kids hair cut places before but Alex could never be convinced to sit in a toy car to have his hair cut. Today he willingly climbed into the toy airplane and watched "Toy Story 2" while the lady cut his hair. His hair was getting so long it was bothering him when the wind blew and it got in his eyes. He looks much older now with his short hair.

Later in my new book on the Caymans it continues: "There aren't just banks in Grand Cayman. There are many law firms too." Emma has finished her first week of work and is getting busy already. Our future living arrangmenets keep getting more confused as we see more places. There are lots of very nice places we are trying to decide on. We will keep you informed when we have our own place so you can book youor holidays. Hopefully the sun is shining on you too.

No parking brake (Emergency brake) needed

2009-03-21T11:08:00.008+10:00

Friday the 13th was a lucky day for us despite our fears about it. With the thought of getting up at 0400 to drive 2 hours down to Heathrow and then a very long day flight we feared the worst. Instead it was lucky 13 for us as everything went right to plan without any hitches. The kids were a bit of a handful on the flight as they usually are on day flights. They don't like to sleep on day flights and they did very little sleeping. By the time we got off the plane after 13 hours cooped up, a lot of people told us how impressed they were with how good the kids were and I just assumed they thought some other kids on the plane must have been mine. The attendants were really good and played with them while we were on the ground in the Bahamas during our stop over. Alex was even invited by the Captain to sit in the cockpit and thought that was really cool! Alex and Ellie also impressed everyone in terminal 5 at Heathrow as they each pulled their own trolley bag through the airport. We were also lucky as we checked in as several of our bags were a few kilos overweight but the lady at the desk never even flinched.

We knew things were looking up as we came in to Nassau, the Bahamas to land as we saw the beautiful shades of blue and the reefs as we landed. That is when the smiles began. We also knew we only had an hour on the ground and then a short flight to the Caymans. We had fantastic views of the blues surrounding the island and the coast as we swooped down to land in George Town. It was a short ride and we were home by the beach. Emma's firm is putting us up for 30 days in a holiday condo on seven mile beach called Villas of the Galleon. We have breakfast every morning on the patio listening to the water on the shore and watching the cruise ships pull into the harbour. The beach starts right at the bottom of our steps.

Saturday morning Emma went to pick up the rental car her firm is providing us for our first thirty. Initially they had a Jeep Wrangler all ready for us. While most of you may think this is the perfect car for the Caymans, it is not the perfect car for 2 kids and a large double pushchair. They found us a more appropriate vehicle and when Emma checked it out she discovered the parking brake (emergency brake, depending on what parts you are from) didn't work. When she pointed it out the man said don't worry about it, the whole island is flat! And he is right too we haven't needed it! We do miss having the mountains which surround you wherever you look in Muscat though. The highest point on the island is about 60 feet above sea level and that is the top of the Ritz-Carlton which is right next to us.

Even amidst paradise and holiday goers we have had lots to get done. We have spent a large part of the week looking for a place to live. We have seen lots of lovely places and have decided to rent for a while until we are fully settled before we think about buying a place. The kids have been very good being dragged from house to house, many full of toys belonging to the owners that they can't just stay and play with. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have made our final choice as we only have three more weeks left in our beachfront condo. We have also been looking for nursery schools for the kids. This is proving more difficult as there is a big shortage of nursery spots on the island. We think we may have found somewhere to start soon and may have spots at a beautiful Montessori for Alex and Ellie starting in September.

We are quickly finding our way around as it is not a large island. The Caymans is a British Overseas Territory. The only way you would know is we drive on the left side of the road. The cars however, are about half right side drive and half left side drive. It is only really a problem at the drive-thru as they are all set up for vehicles driven on the right side of the car. Electricity, TV, stores and most of the accents would lead you to believe you were in the U.S.

Emma starts work on Monday so the long break is quickly ending. Eric had an interview for the head of maths post at St Ignatius Catholic School. The interview went very well and they asked him to come back and teach an A level class. That also went well and Eric has the job as head of maths to start in September with the new school year. Everything is falling nicely into place.

We have had lots of fun with the kids playing at some wonderful parks, on the beautiful beaches and tonight we had dinner at a popular weekend hang out spot. The second largest skate park in the world is here in the Caymans and you can have dinner and watch the big kids skate. You could see it in Ellie's eyes that she already wants a skateboard of her own! There is also an artificial surf park next door. Alex and Ellie had a great time playing with all the kids as it is a big family hang out in the evenings on weekends. We have the kids begging to go to sleep before their normal bedtime, which is good, as the first few mornings they were up very early because of the jet lag. (Our first morning they had us up at 0230.) Most evenings we sit and watch the amazing sunsets and many evenings the old pirate sailing ship heads across the sun as it fades away.

English ABC's

2009-03-13T07:15:00.011+10:00

A is for animals which Ellie just adores. Unfortunately in Muscat there was a small selection of animals for her to see. We had friends with dogs and there were lots of bin cats in the neighborhood and you could see camels or goats around in some places but that was about it. Not even a zoo to go see. One day we went to the Twycross Zoo to see some new animals. Alex and Ellie loved seeing the elephants, giraffes, lions, penguins, sea lions, lots of monkeys and even the camels. (The camels were from Asia and very different from the Arabian camels they are used to seeing.) By the end of the day Ellie was exhausted and sitting in the push chair as we watched the chimps. It was a wonderful scene Ellie in the push chair right up against the glass and a chimp came up and sat right on the other side with his arms folded examining Ellie.

One day we went to Hoar Park to see the farm animals. Alex and Ellie had a blast feeding the huge variety of chickens, ducks, deer, goats and other animals. Alex and Ellie were far braver than mummy in letting the deer and goats eat the food right off their hands. There was also a very not-pretty boar that got a lot of giggles and pictures!

On another day we took the train into Birmingham to the National Sea Life Centre. There were lots of sharks, rays, turtles and otters. Alex and Ellie also enjoyed seeing the real life versions of their friends from "Finding Nemo" which is one of their favorite movies. Alex was very brave again and enjoyed touching the crab in the tide pool several times. There were also lots of visit to the park in town to feed the ducks. Not only do the ducks get feed well but the kids seem to enjoy stale bread as much as the ducks.

B is for buses over which Alex always fusses. Alex loves all things motorised; cars, planes, trains and buses. He likes to ride them, watch them and play with his small versions. Since Ellie likes to do everything Alex does, she is also into motorised transport. There are no trains and not many opportunities to ride buses in Muscat. About the only time we ride a bus is at the airport to get to the airplane. Emma, Alex and Ellie went on the bus into Leicester with nana and da Tonks one day while Eric rested his foot. The only purpose of the trip was to ride the bus and the kids had a great time. A trip with presents to the Disney store in Leicester added to a great day out. We rode the train into Birmingham going to the Sea Life Centre and today we took the train back to Leicester with nana and da for a day out. Alex and Ellie just have a blast riding on the trains.

C is for castles and the one in Warwick is fantastical. Last Sunday we met our good friends the McCarters who are now living in England at Warwick Castle. While the weather quickly turned very wet we all had a great time roaming this awesome site. It looks like a castle should and it is full of displays of all types of weapons and costumes. Alex and Eric even managed to make it up and down the narrow winding stairs of the large turrets, albeit with a little help from the McCarters. Alex and Ellie enjoyed the knights on horses and playing with the McCarter boys. We enjoyed a scrumptious traditional English roast for lunch to top it off.

V is for visa which we now have. On Monday Emma heard the news we were anxiously awaiting; her work visa had come through. This means that Friday morning, the 13th we will be winging towards the Caymans, due to touch down Friday evening in Georgetown. We have all had fun in England. Alex and Ellie have loved being able to play with their big cousins Ben and Beth. The weather has mostly been dry and not too cold so we have been able to get out and do lots with Emma's family and do things we couldn't in Muscat. It looks like our long journey chasing the sun westward is finally coming to an end for now. See you on the other side.

The end is just another beginning

2009-03-05T21:00:00.005+10:00

"The end is just another beginning" came from a t-shirt I got at my hostel in Perth, Australia, my first stop after I got out of the Marine Corps in 1999. This was also about a week before I first met Emma not far from Melbourne. It seems it is fast becoming the family moto.

We had a lovely stay at the Shangri-La hotel outside Muscat. It took us a little longer to get there as it was hard work getting everything out of the house and sorted. By Thursday night we were settled in a lovely family room and the kids were already in the pool. We had a lovely dinner with friends who came out to see us. Friday and Saturday were spent mostly in the pool. The kids had a lovely time and were the first in the pool every morning and would not come out until we dragged them out well after dark and everyone long gone. We had lots of friends come out to see us and spend some time in the pool and at the beach with us. Alex and Ellie enjoyed the chance to play with their friends one more time. Eric also managed to start walking without his crutches for short distances. After the weeks of hard work, frustration and tension of trying to get packed and sorted we were relaxed, recharged and ready for the big adventure.

Saturday night we were off to the airport. We managed to get our eight large suitcases, two car seats, one double push chair, the four of us and Latha into the hotel van. It was a tight fit and we thought we might need another van. Latha had stayed with us at the hotel and was coming to help at the airport and see the kids off. She had already been in tears the last few days as she is going to really miss the kids. The plan is she will join us in the Caymans but we can't get her visa until after we arrive. That means it might be a couple months before she can make it out.

Muscat is a long, narrow city squeezed by the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. That means most of Muscat is not far from the main highway that runs its length. As we headed down the highway towards the airport in the dark, I wanted to join Alex and Ellie as they dozed in their seats, not realizing how long it would be until they could finally get a good sleep. Instead I was flooded by warm memories of Muscat and friends as the lights whizzed by. Everywhere I could see our memories of the last few years, just off the road among the lights. Places we had lived, friends' houses, work, eating out and playing were quickly slipping into the past. The only conversation was talk about how we have to come back when the kids are older so they can see where they are from and we can see how much has changed.

We managed to get all our stuff through the airport and get all our departure paperwork done very smoothly. After so many bumps and obstacles trying to get ready to go, our last hours were finally going smoothly. Alex had to keep telling Latha as he has all week "Latha crying, no Latha cry!". It was difficult for her to say goodbye, even knowing we will see her again soon. We flew British Airways from Muscat to Heathrow with a stop on the ground in Abu Dhabi. The kids finally fell asleep somewhere around Abu Dhabi which was about 0100.

Our trip all went very smoothly and Emma's parents were there to meet us. With all our stuff they had to come down in two cars. We arrived at Heathrow's new terminal five which just opened last year. Even if you have not been through it, you probably heard all about its problems when it first opened. It is beautiful and new but why do you build a new terminal without walkways to get on and off airplanes? In the land of rain? That is usually the mark of a small or primitive airport when you have to walk down the stairs and get on a bus to get off the plane as you do in Muscat still. This struck me even more as I was still using my crutches to help me get around. Alex's first remark as we walked to the bus to take us to the terminal was "no rain". He still remembers England as the land of rain and we were glad it was dry as we walked down the stairs to the bus.

The kids are pretty much over their jet lag and enjoying their time in England. We will let you know what we are up to here in the land of rain soon. Thanks to all our friends in Muscat for a wonderful time and we are looking forward to our new beginning!

The coming darkness

2009-02-24T21:29:00.009+10:00

In the middle east, because of cheap and plentiful petrol and power, they overdose on lighting in the houses. In our informal living room where we hang out most of the time we have five ceiling light fixtures, each having 2 bulbs. In our formal living room downstairs we have five fixtures hanging from the ceiling, four with three bulbs and one with five bulbs. (17 bulbs is a lot for an average sized room!) As we are merely renting, and leaving the country soon, we long ago stopped replacing all these bulbs as they burned out. You don't need most of them anyway. As our departure draws near, the bulbs are popping more regularly and we are inching towards darkness. It is getting dangerous going down our darkened stairwell, the same one I fell on and broke my foot, and many of the other rooms are getting darker and darker, especially since all our lamps have now also been sold. We also have very high ceilings and no ladder, so it is even hard to reapportion bulbs from little-used rooms to the few remaining that we inhabit as our house seems to disappear from around us as more people come buy what little we have left.

It always works out that when you move away from an area there are lots of things to do and places to see you have taken for granted and not done, since you can always do it later. As the end draws near you rush and try to get in the things you have always been meaning to do. We are no different and were going to use the last few weeks, when neither of us was working, to do our list. That is before I broke my foot and put an end to our opportunity to do many of the things we had been meaning to do ever since we arrived. Oh well, it leaves a few things for us to come back in the future to do with the kids.

Alex and Ellie are still handling all the chaos very well. Alex is already looking forward to his upcoming airplane ride and really eager to ride the train again when we are in England. He amazed us with a perfect count to ten, all on his own with no prompting, and he can do a really good "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" sing song. Ellie keeps smiling and is starting to push back more when Alex tries to push her around.

The new owners of our last remaining items in the house will be collecting them tomorrow. We have sold just about everything we needed to except our Dodge Durango, which we will have to leave with our friends Hans and Rosie to try to sell for us. (Maybe all those problems American car makers are facing are having an impact on us here!) A last we will not mourn was our last visit to our bank, HSBC, this morning to close our account. We have no plans to ever be in an HSBC bank anywhere in the future! As our house will be bare tomorrow, Thursday morning we will go to the Shangri-La Resort for our last couple days to wind down after the chaos of the last few weeks. Tomorrow we will close our internet account, so this may be our last update from Muscat. Fortunately we will not have to remember to turn the lights out as we leave, there won't be any left to turn off!

Remember, wherever you go, there you are! (Something to think about for all you travellers out there. Free dinner next time we see you if you can tell me what movie this quote comes from)

Tea with Sofa Man

2009-02-22T18:59:00.008+10:00

Sofa man is a very nice Omani man who bought much of our stuff we have been getting rid off. He bought our very large corner sofa, large screen TV and lots of other items we were not taking. The sofa and TV are really only appropriate for a certain house. He has been over several times to buy more items and pick up the larger items. He has said we can keep the TV until we go. He also insisted we go to his house to have tea with him and his family. We are not very good with Omani names and when he calls his number comes up as sofa man on the phone.

Yesterday we all went over to his house for tea. He has a lovely house that he has put a lot of work into. From the outside it looks like a traditional house or one of the forts rather than a plain white cube as most of the houses around Muscat look like. He has a lovely family and his wife, three daughters and one son were all there. His older son, whom we met when he came over one day to do some shopping, is at college. Sofa man and his wife are from the interior, in the vicinity of Ibra and came to Muscat in 1990. His English is quite good considering he has learned it on his own in the last few years. He has also learned French in the last couple years. He works in the ministry of defence. His wife doesn't really speak any English but his daughters English was very good. The eldest girl is 16 and looking forward to going to college to study criminology so she can be in the Omani version of the FBI!

Alex and Ellie had a wonderful time. Omanis love little kids, especially western kids. They were far more relaxed than we were as Alex and Ellie drank orange juice from some very nice glasses. They had a parakeet in a cage in the small front courtyard that the kids found fascinating. That is until it started flapping its wings which scared Alex and he started crying. Ellie was not worried at all. They also had two turtles in a small tank by the front door. This really excited the kids. Sofa man's wife brought them inside and spent a lot of time letting the kids play with the turtles in the tank and then taking them out and letting them run free on the living room floor. The kids had a fantastic time with the turtles.

We had some lovely tea, fruit and kahwa (Omani coffee) with the family. We also had the traditional Omani dates. The Omanis mush them all up and you take a handful of semi-mushed dates to snack on. They also gave us a wonderful present of a small crystal khanjar. (The khanjar is the traditional Omani curved dagger that the men still wear on their belt when they get dressed up.) We sat on their large corner cushion they had bought from us while we had tea. They also took lots of pictures with their new video camera they had purchased from us too. We also got to see the rest of the house. We were pleasantly surprised at how nicely decorated it was. When you see what most of the furniture stores here sell you expect all the Omani homes to be very tacky and gaudy. They even have a small electric fireplace in the formal living room.

It was a wonderful experience to end our years here in Oman. The Omanis are very friendly and their hospitality is fantastic. Sofa man is very proud of his family and the life he has built for them. We will say goodbye to sofa man for the last time this Wednesday when he comes with an army of helpers to get the large screen TV downstairs and into the truck. It is going to go into their master bedroom in their lovely house.

Boxes,Boxes Everywhere

2009-02-17T21:25:00.004+10:00

The movers have been in and boxed everything up. Yesterday they loaded up our stuff and hopefully it is on a ship to Dubai in the next couple days. Our stuff just fit in a 20 foot shipping container! We only had a few slip ups with the packing. Alex has a "Cars" pull along bag he uses when we fly. "Cars" is his favorite movie and he loves pulling things along. We had it already packed with all our best kids travel toys and distractions for our flights. Somehow in the confusion it has ended up in the container, so we are coming up with plan B for our trip. The only important item which did not get packed was a mask we bought in Hong Kong that is still hanging on the wall as we forgot to unscrew it. It should fit in our bags without too much difficulty.

The kids have been very good handling the chaos and confusion of the packing. Our house is now very empty and even the smallest whisper from Ellie echoes across the marble floors and empty walls. Fortunately a few items belong to the company so we still have a bed, a couple sofas and a wardrobe. Our kitchen appliances and large screen TV have been sold with the caveat that we get to keep them until we leave. Most mornings when the kids get us up by 0600 we get them out of their room and put them in bed with us so they can have their milk and watch a movie while we try to keep out eyes shut for a few more minutes. Yesterday morning after jumping into bed with us, Alex camly pointed out to Ellie that "TV gone", "TV gone". The change in their morning ritual didn't seem to bother them too much. After polishing off their milk they simply dragged me into the living room so we could watch TV on our large screen, which is too big for your average house in other parts of the world which is why we are not bringing it.

On Wed, Feb 11, I went back to the doctor and they removed my cast from my foot. The break is healing well but I am still on crutches. It is nice to be able to wash my foot and move my ankle around! I am slowly putting more weight on it and the doctor thinks I may be off crutches in two weeks which would be just in time to fly out of here. I was back in the pool for the first time yesterday. My left leg has become quite scrawny and my ankle has lost a lot of flexibilty after being stuck in the same position for more than five weeks.

We still have some loose ends to tie up and some items to try to sell before we head out. Our plan is to spend our last two days at the Shangri-La Resort before flying out to Enlgand early on the morning of March 1.

Moving

2009-02-05T15:26:00.004+10:00

The movers are coming starting Feb 14. We were finally able to find some movers after the first ones we talked to said our stuff could not be shipped to the Caymans! After some research by the movers they all finally discovered that household goods can be shipped to the Caymans, for a steep price. After being packed our stuff will go by truck to Dubai where it may sit for a while as the port in Dubai is extremely busy. Then by ship to Miami and then on to another ship to the Caymans.
We are very busy getting ready for the move. It is our first with kids which makes it more complicated. It will also probably take our shipment more than 10 weeks to get there so we have to be sure we have all the essentials with us when we fly. Much of the furniture in our house belongs to the company so we will have some furniture, bed, futon and wardrobes, until we leave. Most houses in the Caymans, whether you rent or buy, come fully furnished so we don't need to bring much furniture. Voltage in the Caymans is 110V and our power here is 220V so we have to dump many of our electrical items.
All this means we have lots of stuff we are selling. Emma has a little shop set up in the downstairs living room for people to browse through when they come over. The items all have price tags! We only need to advertise the big items and the rest seem to follow. When people see our fliers on the local for sale bulletin boards they know we are moving and must have other items for sale also. We have received calls from strangers asking if we had air conditioners for sale: we do not. When someone comes over to look at an item we have for sale, as they walk through the house they try to buy everything else they see. "Is the bookshelf for sale? Are the plants for sale? Is the satellite receiver box for sale?"
Emma is doing a great job of getting all this organized and keeping the four categories of items for sale, items belonging to the firm, items for the movers to pack and items we will bring with us on the plane all separated. Being stuck on the sofa with my broken foot,(now stuck on the futon as the sofa has been sold), I have not been able to help as much. The kids are handling all the chaos very well. Alex did cry the other day as someone carried out the small coffee table from the downstairs living room, which he is very rarely allowed to go in. He stood at the door repeating "bye bye table" and waving as it was carried out, put in their car, and driven away.
Alex's vocabulary and grammar is improving quickly. His new favorite word is "need". "I need to go to the beach", "I need the car", and his favorite "I need the milk"! Ellie is doing her best to keep up and imitates everything he says. We now have to be careful when driving with Alex in the car. The Omanis as very nice and friendly but the moment the get into a car they become rude. They have no concept of rules of the road or the common customs of driving. I have heard that it takes an average of six times before people pass the driving test here. It also seems like every third car on the road is a student driver car. In spite of all this, Omanis are still horribly frustrating drivers. Any comment we make in the car out of frustration at what has just happened on the road, Alex immediately starts to repeat. We have to start watching what we say when Alex is around!
Our exact departure date is still not set as it depends how my foot comes along. Our tentative plan is to leave on March 1.

Eric swims the Thames

2009-01-29T00:24:00.001+10:00

Eric's swim last summer

Ellie and the Jelly

2009-01-26T14:07:00.000+10:00

Ellie is the type of girl that flings herself off the bed trusting someone will catch her. She heads down the stairs on her own not worrying about the consequences. When Alex first started navigating the stairs he would always wait for us to hold our hand when going down. Ellie believes she can do anything Alex can and her curiosity worryingly has no limits. Yesterday evening Emma took Alex and Ellie for a stroll and play on the beach. Ellie found a portuguese man of war (blue bottle) jellyfish lying on the beach and just had to pick it up. Emma had to rush her home as she was in lots of pain. She was rubbing her face and also Emma's so now it was worse. When she got home we soaked her hands in vinegar and fairly quickly that calmed her down as the pain slowly faded. It was quite a sight, Ellie sitting in my lap with her hands in a bowl of vinegar, her face all red and puffy and we couldn't tell if it was from all the crying or whether she had spread the stingers to her face. Emma's neck was now hurting and we were worried Ellie had spread the stingers to her face and eyes. (Interesting point is some web sites say to soak in vinegar and others say not to, some say to rinse with fresh water, others say sternly no fresh water, only salt water!)

We decided it would be best to take her to the hospital to have her checked out, so Emma was off to the Royal Hospital with Ellie again. (Ellie spent 4 days in the hospital in August with suspected Meningitis which in the end turned out to be a severe throat infection) It turns out Ellie hadn't been stung to badly. The doctor gave her some anti-histamines, some cream for her rash that was appearing and said to give her some more panadol and to keep a close eye on her through the night. The doctor said rinsing in vinegar the best thing for a jellyfish sting (The visit to the emergency room at the hospital:$20!!) By the time they got home Ellie was feeling much better and she had a good night sleep. This morning she is back to her normal self and only has some small welts on her hands. Emma's neck is feeling much better also.

On the way home from the hospital Emma went through McDonalds since it was late and we had missed dinner. They had given Ellie an orange balloon. This morning when Alex found it he knew right away it was an "orange french fry balloon!" McDonalds french fries are one of his favorite foods and he already can recognize the McDonald "M"

Dinner at the Al-Bustan

2009-01-25T23:06:00.004+10:00

Thursday night we went out for the nicest meal I have ever had. Our friends from Australia had told us about the new restaurant at the Al-Bustan Palace Hotel. The Vue by Shannon Bennett is the first restaurant I have been to that is the restaurant of a world famous chef. Those of you that know me know I am more a Chilis, TGI Fridays, or In-n-Out Burger type of guy. There is no menu at Vue, just lots of courses of amazing, creative food. We went for five courses plus desert. There were also several other culinary treats in between the courses. It is the kind of place that has a wine specialist who can recommend a specific wine for each course. We didn't quite go for that option though. Each dish was a creative masterpiece that none of us had seen anywhere else before. Perhaps the highlight was the cigar for dessert. It was brought out in an ashtray and looked like a smoking cigar. It was actaully chocolate with a chocolate filling. The smoking end was a small piece of burning coconut husk.

It was an amazing dining experience and really made us realize how creative top chefs can really be.

The next afternoon, Friday afternoon, we were back at the Al Bustan for champagne brunch on the terrace with beautiful sunshine and spectacular views of the newly refurbished gardens and swimming pools. This time we had all the kids, Will and baby Emma from Oz and our two munchkins Alex and Ellie with us.

Renee, Michael, Renee's aunt Sue, Will and baby Emma have gone back to Sydney after a great visit with us. We are now busy getting ready for the movers and taking care of business for our upcoming move to the Caymans.

Ellie's visit to the mosque

2009-01-25T17:25:00.001+10:00

Football and Holidays

2009-01-20T19:14:00.000+10:00

Saturday night was the final of the 19th Gulf Football championships here in Muscat. Oman had qualified for the final again after losing in the final the last two tournaments. They have never won the tournament. It is interesting to see how a country where they don't drink celebrates their big sporting successes. We witnessed it during the last tournament when they went crazy even though they finished second and they did it on a larger scale Wednesday night when they won their semi-final match. They take to the streets in their decorated cars and drive around very slowly on every road, honking, blowing whistles and hanging out of their cars waving flags. They ride on top of the cars, hang out open doors and wander around the roads. The police stand on the side and watch silently. We got caught up in it out of ignorance two years ago and this past Wednesday because we were on our way to the airport to pick up friends coming in to visit from Australia. The highway was almost at a standstill with the celebrations. Women in their black abayas were wondering down the median of the main highway waving large Omani flags.

Knowing this we chose to stay close to home for dinner on Saturday, the night of the finals. We walked over to Kargeens, a local hangout near our house. The outdoor coffee shop next door and the inside of the restaurant were packed with fans cheering on the large screens. After 90 minutes of scoreless play and another 30 minutes of no score they went to penalties. Each side made their first five penalties and on the sixth one the Saudi player just missed the post and Oman scored theirs which set off celebrations like no other. Fortunately we only had to walk home, but had to shut the windows as the honking went on all night.

Somehow we missed the announcement that the next day had been proclaimed a holiday. (It is still good to be Sultan!) We are still not sure how you would have found out. We finally learned at 0800 the next morning when we took Alex to school only to discover there was no school as it was a holiday. While it was a tournament for only eight teams, it is the biggest moment in Omani sporting history. It is interesting to realize that football fans are all just as crazy anywhere in the world. Several days later the flags are still being waved, the scarves are still around the necks, and the honking can still be heard at times.

Football, Rain and Art

2009-01-15T01:29:00.000+10:00

I apologize for my little girl sending out her unauthorized blog, we will try to keep a closer eye on her next time.

Two years ago, in the last Gulf Cup, Oman finished second to the UAE. You would have thought they had won the World Cup the way they celebrated here in Muscat. We know as we were out on the road when it happened. This time around Oman is currently hosting the Gulf Cup Football championships over the last couple weeks. You can always tell when Oman wins their game at night as you can hear the cars honking all through the night as they drive around. You can see the lights of the National Stadium from our roof. The Omanis are very patriotic, especially when it comes to their football. Everyone dresses their cars up in the national colors of red, white and green. They take their car to the detailers to have it done professionally, and have lots of flags, stickers and other decorations plastered all over the car. We even saw one guy driving around in a black car covered in red hearts, why he chose heart stickers we still haven't figured out. They also all wear scarves in the national colors. It is OK when we have cool weather but they still wear their supporters winter scarves when they have big matches in the summer months.

Last night a big lighting storm came through with high winds and some heavy downpours. The rain continued today. We don't get a lot of rain but when we do it really comes down and floods many parts of town. Our front windows leaked like usual and we had flashbacks to when Gonu hit and we had towels all over the floor in our front room. Two of the schools were shut today. There was much talk on the radio about what they might have to do with the semi-final football matches scheduled for tonight. The rain has let up so the matches are going on as scheduled.

On Jan 5 I missed a step coming down the steps in our house and landed badly on my left foot. I heard the crack which inspired me to go to the hospital right away. The x-ray confirmed that I had broken the outside bone in my left foot (the one that runs to the little toe). I have been in a cast on crutches when I do manage to get off the sofa but am not allowed to put any weight on my foot. Tonight I had to go back to the hospital to have the temporary cast taken off and have more x-rays. On the way past the stadium to the hospital you could see the stadium was already full and cars were parked along the road for a long way past the stadium. Oman is playing Qatar in the first semi-final. While waiting to have my x-ray the game started on the TV in the waiting lounge. The hospital was anxious as everyone started to watch the match. Even the Omani ladies working behind the desks were glued to the screen and shouting at the Omani players to shoot everytime they got near the box. They did manage to get my x-ray done and my foot is making progress. I have another cast on and am not supposed to put ay weight on it for 3 more weeks. I will probably have the cast on for five more weeks. This is a bit of a bummer as we were looking forward to both being off work with some nice weather to take advantage of everything Oman has to offer. Now it looks like the cast will be off just in time for us to go. That is the bright side! Oman has just beaten Qatar 1-0 so we are in for a noisy night and an even bigger finals night on Sat.

Alex took his first steps tonight towards being a proper little boy as well as an artist. We have friends from Australia coming in later tonight to visit. Emma's best friend from Australia with her husband and kids. We will be venturing out onto the roads in the midst of football mania to pick them up from the airport. Alex took his purple marker and drew a huge mural all across one of the white walls in the guest room to help welcome our friends.

Ellie here

2009-01-12T23:38:00.003+10:00

I am now 18 months old and they've been treating me as a baby for far too long so I have hacked into mom and dad’s blog to get my side of the story out. My big brother Alex got to tell you his side of the story when he was just 6 months old and then they have done nothing since! I was born on June 10, 2007 just after, Cyclone Gonu, the biggest storm of the last 100 years to hit. It is a good thing I was in no hurry to get out because we would not have been able to get to hospital with all the roads flooded out. We have spent both my summers visiting family in and. I really enjoy having all my cousins around to play with. I had a really big birthday party for my first birthday at the American club here in Muscat. Most of the guests were Mommy and Daddy's friends as being only one I only had a few friends (I have changed that now). I did get to wear my pink tutu and fairy wings though. I really enjoy driving in the car, flying on planes and playing at the beach. Like all good girls I love to get dirty and play in the sand and mud. It has also been lots of fun having a friends Golden Retriever stay with us lots as he makes a good horsie.

My big brother Alex is an enigma to me. He usually plays with me very well and I really like playing with all his cars and trains. It seems that is all he is interested in. When he gets tired or bored he starts hitting and pushing me and taking my toys from me. Mom says he isn’t really trying to be mean and he usually comes back and says he is sorry after they take him away. For a big two year old who goes to nursery three mornings a week he can be a big wimp. He is even afraid of rain. A few weeks ago while at the doctors office there was a huge thunderstorm with heavy rain. I wanted to go out and play in the rain but he cried and refused to go out. We don't see too much rain over here but we had to wait at the doctor’s until the rain stopped. This past summer in he would cry "ouch" if we were out walking and it started to rain on his head. While in this past summer we got to ride on the real Thomas the Tank Engine which is Alex’s favorite. No one really noticed, but I thought it was really cool too! Daddy went swimming down the Thames for 2 days. He said it was very cold (15 C) but it was very beautiful and lots of fun.

We have had lots of visitors from Australia, England, the U.S. and even my cousins from Romania. As you would expect everyone thinks I am the cutest girl ever! I am not that keen on having mom try to fix my hair up every morning. I just pull the clips out later. They don’t match the chocolate, yogurt, marker and dirt I prefer to wear on my face. Alex and I really love life here in. We get to go to the beach and the pool all the time. When mommy and daddy are at work Latha, who is from Sri Lanka, looks after us. She is just like that nanny we see in the movie Mary Poppins just that she doesn’t sing to us.

In August of 2008 mommy stopped going to work and she spent lots of time on the phone in her pajamas at strange times. I think she had finally had enough of her job here and wanted to spend more time with us and decided to start looking for somewhere else even cooler than Muscat for us to live. Not too long after Mommy put all the Christmas decorations up, daddy also stopped going to work. I think that was because it was Christmas holiday. We went to the American club to see Santa come in on a camel and then he gave us presents. Then we flew to see our cousins and hope that the real Santa could track us down. It was very cold there but it was fun getting dressed up and going out to see all the Christmas trees and lights and having Christmas all over again (Santa had already visited us in Muscat). Then in January daddy didn’t go back to work like he usually does so I am getting very suspicious that we will be going somewhere else soon. Now daddy just sits on the couch all day with his left foot in a big cast and he walks with two metal sticks. His foot is broken and he can’t go anywhere with us right now. Mommy is doing a pretty good job keeping us entertained though and this afternoon we went to the beach and for ice cream.

Mommy has started to sell a lot of our stuff and movers have been coming by to see how much stuff we have and try to figure out how to get it to our new home. We are keeping a close eye on her as we fear for some of our toys! I overheard that Mommy has found a job with a law firm in the Cayman Islands, so that is where we are heading. She is very excited as the hours will be far more flexible and she will be able to work from home sometimes, so we should see more of her. No news on what daddy will be doing but hopefully he will be able to take us to the beach every day and not find a job until September. There are lots of open water swims there so he is excited about being able to do those. We will be leaving the end of February and will go through England for a short visit to see my Nanna and Da before going to the Caymans. We are all very excited about the big move and hope we will get lots of visitors.

I will miss the only home I have ever known here in Oman. I will be sad to leave all my friends from all over the world and the friendly people of Oman. Mommy went to see the Caymans in December for a dew days and said it was really nice! They say I am still too young to have my own email so you can send all comments for me through mom and dad or leave a comment here on the blog.