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extra bucksmithSeptember 11 last posti've decided that this blog has run it's course. it was set up originally to celebrate ben's entrance and contribution to our family. since then it has been beaten into new shapes and been redressed in some of the most frightening outfits this side of the salvation army shop. so, this is the last post. if you have visited this site more than twice, thank you. if this is your first time, then i'm sure you'll be more specific next time you google something. we may well continue somewhere else. August 19 homehaving not posted for two months and a day i expect myself to write something blinding. however too many things have happen recently to even consider summarising them or making light of one or two quirky moments (while finding some obscure to connection to life in nepal as is oft the case). while in new zealand i was extremely happy to have taken some time to catch up with friends from my past. friends for secondary school and even primary who i hadn't caught up with for ten, fifteen or even twenty years. don't get me started on what it's like being on of those people with friends from twenty years ago. something deep inside was delighted to see those faces and hear the jokes and pick it all up where we all left off as if the nineties and noughties were never there. we dunk beer, we ate pudding we teased, in their absence, those nerds we loved to beat, and so it went on. i don't put enough into my relationships to necessarily be able to rekindle old friendships. but, i feel so stoked to have met up old friends again because it allowed me to affirm within myself and hopefully to them also how important they were to me and how influencial they were in my life. my life in weird and i do think often about when i was young. not because they were better days but becasue they were formative years. thank you all. for everything. June 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.
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