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extra bucksmithJune 18 post september 11 worldwe went to estonia once. we spent about five days there which wasn't enough. it was a lovely, lovely holiday. for starters we arrived by ship. it could have been an awful experience but it wasn't. having arrived in port we took a taxi to a hotel we thought would be comfortable and suitable. it was neither. in fact the guest house we spent the remaining four or five nights in wasn't particularly comfortable or suitable either but is was hillarious. the senior russian lady who ran the owned and ran the place was nothing short of alzheimic. she provided these wonderful cooked breakfasts for us which we enjoyed while watching the first of the u.s. invasions on afghanistan on tv. if that wasn't violent enough, our hostess' accusations that i had broken the shower were but not as fierce as her yelling sessions at the other guest for bringing ladies back after midnight.
what we saw of estonia was incredible. incomparable to any other country we have visited. apart from finding ourselves on a nudist beach we wandered through the orangest forest i have ever, ever seen. we saw giant waterslides on a beach, a mouse, an eccentric scotsman (saw some in glasgow too less than a month earlier), baskets of flowers and a city that should be cryogenically preserved. it is the sweetest city i think i have ever visited. more captivating that leuven, dubrovnik, mostar or nicosia. it fascinates like jaisalmer or varanasi. tallin is beautifully coloured and laid out. i have a thing for cobbled streets as did the creators of tallin. we walked around and around and around. i loved it and as i think about it now, i want to go back. one night we found a very attractive restaurant. we entered, sat down, ordered the reindeer curry, supped, paid and left. as you do. we were hosted in estonia by saints and ate like kings. thank god we made it safely back to helsinki because we were due to fly out to new zeland again just 2 days later. shakingit's easy to sit on the sidelines and judge and scream and have better ideas and comforting thoughts and a healing plan for ones neighbour from a distance but when shit is hitting the fan much closer to home i am learning it's best to put the high falooting words out the window and allow a personal, raw touch to takeover. May 31 offtoday there was the most minging stench in the air all around ras al khaimah. really, it was putrid. as frustrating as it was vile was the fact it was very difficult to pinpoint exactly what it was. it was definitely of fish origin. but why and how was it so powerful? you can't imagine the damage the wafting force was causing. it was like twelve right whales beached themselves just down the road, farted themselves to oblivion after a krillfest like never before then passed away. all in 50 degree heat, mind.
we remain well. just 23 days left for us in this country. we fly to new zealand for six weeks before heading to malaysia early august. regretably we won't have enough time to do a third of the things we would like to do. we only hope we can see our friends at least for a brunch or something.
i have wickedly underestimated how much we will miss our lives here. much of our married life has been spent here and this is the home of our two amazing boys. taking them from their place of birth is not something we are doing lightly or flippantly. however, it is for their sake we are moving on.
i hope you have all rssed our new blog page:
we plan to update it a couple of times each week. please check it and comment. we need you.
oh, and i spoke to the hon john key the other day. May 27 specificswe've been busy blah blah no time to post blah blah. anyway, with that out the way we'd like to introduce you to a new page:
we want you to know what's going on. our boys are inexplicable.
the new page will contain vids, photos, but more importantly the details of plop and keef - ben's two new friends. okay, so we can't see them but they are there. jonah is walkingish. see you there.
March 16 1001it might be fun to create a list of reasons why i haven't posted here for heaven knows how long. two and a half months actually. then again, it might be wickedly boring, too. i'm not prepared to take that risk. instead i will provide a diary like catch up of what has preoccupied us all the past while.
on christmas day we flew to perth for brother matthew's wedding to christa. the week we had with the bucks and the sambells and the daltons became the highlight of the year, predictably. the hospitality provided by all our perth hosts was second to none (one - for those non maths boffins). respect to all the sambells for their welcome and the daltons for their generosity and thoughtfulness throughout. the bucks never disappoint with their persistent humour and insatiable need to use the word 'pigeon' like gordon ramsay uses *&#$. it was literally swell.
i hope you also know by now that we will be leaving the uae this june. from august our new adress will be malaysia, asia, world, earth, milky way, galaxy.... as much as we will miss our dear friends in ras al khaimah we look forward to becoming part of a new community on the east coast of malaysia. i did a reckie to kl late january and was very pleased (with the price of all skateboard accessories at 'cool element'). we now begin the task of getting rid of 90% of our worldy possessions here and travelling as light as possible. this continues with jenny attending the rak women's flea market this weekend with a car load of stuff.
having used a good chunk of air miles to get to kl in jan, we still had plenty left and with only a few months to use them, we decided to book a last minute holiday. last week we went to cyprus. i didn't really know what to expect. i have added a ridiculous amout of photos to an album to give you a glimpse of this fascinating country. we hired a car and visited as much as we could. next time we will spend days instead of hours in the troodos mountains and take more time to explore nicosia. it was great to be able to cross in to the turkish half of the city too.
our boys are growing cleverly. ben's language is fantastic. he is so delightful to talk with and so engaged and engaging. jonah, at nearly 10 months, is the bomb. he now pulls himself up onto both furniture and any legs dangling from. when he is not smiling he is laughing. we can't wait to take them to nz this july/august asthey are our pride and joy.
jenny recently took part in a 1/2 marathon. a group of 4 ladies formed a team and ran 5km each. jenny ran in a very impressive time of 26 minutes. full credit to her for being devoted to training and for literally pulling one out of the bag. i had planned to run too, but found myself in hospital 4 days earlier with a thumping headache and out of hospital one day earlier appendixless. followed by a couple of weeks at home.
so far we are really enjoying the new year and looking forward to the changes ahead. saying goodbye to friends here will be devastating and softened only by, well, nothing really.
finally, i swam in the sea this arvo and saw a turtle.
January 01 wellingtoniansit used to piss me off but now i find it comical. i am of course referring to that one day each year when i skip through the 'wellingtonian' - the annual magazine for old boys of wellington college. when i was there it was a school of mediocre teachers and a managment structure that enforced the 'if you're not in the top 2% or can't play the oboe through your nose, well, what are you doing here?' philospohy that has plagued the school for long before i attended under harvey rees-thomas and apparrently thrives under the nose of roger moses. in 16 years of reading the wellingtonian i have not once read an article about an old boy who went off and met a nice girl, got married and raised adorable, healthy kids - all out of the spotlight. or one who announced his homosexuality and became head trolley boy at city new world. it's as if they can only see success in the letters and titles that follow and preceed people's names or in the size of their bank accounts. it's boring, actually. dead boring.
okay, so i haven't won a medal in the peruvian moose racing champs, or donated $500 000 to the WCOBA drinkies fund or had a grandfather who (as well as being a wellington college old boy) once discovered the secret to an odorless fart. i endured for 5 years being ignored and harassed by the school for simply being average. it is hillarious how they continue this buffoonery in the form of a yearly magazine!! if i liked, i could even attend a reunion and be ignored in person!!
i am in fact very happy with my life. i see myself successful in dozens of ways. one of which being my abilty to enjoy myself without comparing myself to the shallow acheivements of others. imagine if life really was just about getting money or an order of merit (nz) or anything else like this. what a waste of time it would be to chase these things.
i have a family which brings me more happiness and peace and security than all the money in europe. i am loved. i have friends who are among the coolest people ever. i have a hope and prosperous future ahead, for certain. this year i hope to pour more of myself into my family. i hope to become a more thankful and appreciative person for all that God gives me day by day by day.
having said all this, one can never tire of reading news about the flight of the conchords. December 12 a whileimagine being three. it appears to be a time when happiness far outweighs worry. ben is three. he can do everything in the world. run, skate, dive, joke and pour his own chocolate milk. he adores jonah in a way which makes you stare. there is nothing funnier to jonah than ben's helicopter impression, for example. i've added more photos for you to see. i have probably repeated some. who wouldn't? i've got 12 days left to conjur up a deep, humourous and provoking christmas blog. no pressure. i'll probably resort to photos of my boys again. |
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