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Dresden and Krakow

We wandered the streets of Dresden and saw some amazing buildings. We also caught the ferry and viewed the castles and houses along the river bank. We took the car to the other side of the river and went to a castle that had a winery. It was so picturesque and relaxing so we brought pizza and a wine for lunch and just sat and watched the world go by for awhile. In the evening we found a lovely restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal together. In Krakow we did the communist car tour. What fun! I have loaded a photo of the car we travelled in! We sampled Polish dumplings and looked at typical Polish homes and way of life during communist times. We also saw the steel mill and how huge it was! We visited the underground salt mines! They are well worth the visit. Words can’t really describe how amazing they are! Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out too well in the darkened rooms. I think Judy’s photos turned out better so I will try and get some of her photos. You can look them up on the internet and see the photos they have online and they are definitely better than our photos. Nothing like seeing them in real life though. We had to walk down 54 flights of steps (not big flights) but quite a walk. Caught a lift back up though…thank goodness. We also ate really well in Krakow too. So much good food. I am sure I have already put on heaps of weight! But what a fabulous time we are having!

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Holiday Photos

I have finally got an internet connection where I can load some photos. I will try to name each one to give you an idea of where they have been taken. We have had our 10 days travelling over to Poland and back and have also now left C2 and D2’s place. Tonight we are in Leeds and looking forward to discovering York tomorrow. The next night will be at Windemere…a beautiful place so we have heard. I will let the photos tell the story otherwise I will be on the internet for hours and I don’t want to waste this precious time 🙂

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Holiday progress

We are having a fabulous time and traveing a great distance.I have left mylaptop at Daniels place so will try to catch up when we get back to his place. We are now at Krakow! Have been to Brussels, Dresden and now Krakow.  Tomorrow we are visiting Auswich then moving on to Marysias parents place who live out from Poznan.

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Holiday in Shanghai

Well we arrived after a 12 hour flight! We all managed to sleep pretty good on the plane so to arrive at 7.30am meant we could still enjoy the rest of the day without feeling too tired. It was raining when we arrived but cleared pretty early on in the day so we were able to walk around and not get wet! Our tour guide picked us up from the airport and it took about 3/4 of an hour to get to the Sofitel Hotel. Our rooms are fabulous and we were even allowed to have breakfast….which we ate all courses to make it our lunch as well. The rest of the day we got on the explorer bus and saw as much as we could. We even got off twice and had some closer looks at the local life. The most exciting was the old China town part where we had shop keepers trying to convince us that we needed to buy their goods. Robin brought a 32gig memory usb for approx $22NZ. We took heaps of photos and are seeing heaps of wonderful things. The scariest are the bikes and people on the roads. They are everywhere..and there are soooo many bikes. Their seems to be no road rules. People just pull out in front of each other…horns tooting all the time…and amazingly no one gets hurt. Little children are also on the bikes with their parents and no one wears helmets.

We had tea at a restaurant beside the Hotel and experienced locan Chinese food. Mine consisted of lots of cabbage. Judy and Len had seafood noodles and they loved it. They had to pull the shells off all their seafood to eat it…even the cockles. I wondered if they would be able to sleep all night or have upset tummies…they were fine. Tonight we had sweet and spicey chicken and it was HOT!!! Robin had a curry and had trouble stopping his nose from running all trough the meal!…but it was all yummy. We have had McFlurries from McDonald’s a couple of times…a taste from home 🙂

Today we met the tour guide at 8am and were taken to the train station. We had to catch the train to Suzh-ou on our own and get off at the right station! I was very concerned that we wouldn’t know what station was the correct one…but it all worked out. The train was a neat experience. it travelled at high speeds..even getting up to 305Kmph! I will load some photos as it was a fabulous day and we saw heaps of neat things…including an old garden, a silk factory and a boat ride.

There is no Vodafone supplier here in Shanghai so Judy and I can’t use our iphones!! except for games 🙂 We can get our gmail but can’t send any emails! We have free wi-fi at the Hotel, only at reception, but none of us can connect to Facebook! So tonight we are all sitting at reception with our laptops!!!

Tomorrow we are amusing ourselves for the day but going to an acrobatic show in the evening. The next morning we leave for the airport at 8am. I hope my legs can cope with flying again…as I now have no ankles and my feet look really weird! I obviously have fluid retention! never had it before…oh except when I was pregnant!

I will load some photos now as they may take awhile to upload. Miss you all at home. Pray for C5 as the Doctor needs to do more tests on her heart as it looked like she may have a hole in her heart..and may need an operation! I hope all the Mummies/Nanas at home will look after her for me….please

No.. I won’t load any photos…the internet won’t allow us to….not even gmail. Maybe when we get to London. So I will catch up with the photos then, and probably the blog as well as we are out tomorrow night. Take care xoxo

 

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Easter 2012

Well Easter has been and gone and I had a fabulous time! I went to Sydney again for 5 days. I haven’t any holidays left at work so I had to squeeze the visit in between my Thursday and Friday work days. My sister Judy came over with me and she also took her grand daughter Abbie. C1 and D1 brought a new home in January so it was our first time to stay in it, and it is lovely. We also met their new little puppy Rosey. Now I want a dog too. Rosey is so cute! It was great to be with the family in Sydney again. We showed Abbie the Opera House, the harbour bridge and the monorail. On Saturday the children had an Easter Egg hunt and they each filled up their baskets! On the Sunday night we had a family dinner with C4 and D3 as well so we had quite a gathering. On the Monday we went to the Easter Show. I am sure there were over a million people there…it was packed! I was sad to leave as always and am hoping to go over again in September….maybe

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G2’s Birthday and Taranaki Anniversary weekend

For G2’s birthday Robin and I travelled to Palmerston North, picked up the boys and spent the day together. We had a lovely time. We took the boys to the Museum and found this amazing interactive house there. Both boys loved it and had a fabulous time playing with all the things there. They tried out doing some plumbing and also helped build a wall. What a great place for children!

Anniversary weekend was an opportunity to travel to Palmerston North once again. This time I picked up both boys and brought them back to our place for the weekend. I brought their bikes back with me and on Saturday we went to the walkway. What a great day we had! Both boys loved riding their bikes along the walkway…I had to run to keep up with them! Robin dropped us off and took the car to the bridge car park. We met at the bridge. The rest of the afternoon we went to the park. A big day but one filled with fun. Here are some photos of both events.

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Time goes so fast

I just realised that I haven’t loaded anything onto my blog since last year! And there has been so much to share as well! We had everyone home for Christmas, even C2 and D2 from London, and we had some fabulous family times together. C5 turned 20 on the 15th of January, D2 turned ? on the 19th of Jan, C6 turned 18 on the 24th of Feb, G1 turned 15 on the 24th of Feb as well, G3 turned 6 on the 5th of Feb, G2 turned 6 on the 29th of Jan, and Robin turned 57!!!!!! on the 2nd of Jan!!! WOW!!! So many birthdays and so much fun! We had a big family holiday in Rotorua and Hamilton to show D2 some of New Zealand. We also walked our walkway twice. Once with C1, D1, G1, G3, C5, her bf, C2, D2, Robin and me; and the other time with G2 and G4 on their bikes…I walked/ran behind them! Jordan worked at Powerco with Robin and C5 over the holidays and stayed with us most of the time as well. He is doing well at Uni and is onto his second year. C5 is now onto her final year of nursing and has been working at Taranaki Base Hospital. She has also left home and is flatting with a friend who is doing nursing as well. C6 has entered her Uni years. She is now living at the Auckland Uni Hall…and loving it I must say (by the looks of her photos oin Facebook….a little worrying I must add). No….seriously…she is a good girl and is studying hard. So that leaves Robin and me at home alone!!! After 6 children and many years, we are now home alone!!! Thank God for our Scrapbook/computer room! It entertains us nicely! I am loving the lower work load I must say. I only need to do washing twice a week! My house stays tidy..everyday! And the bathroom is amazing! It stays clean and we don’t have masses of towels to wash everyday! I do miss the company though and the girls brought LIFE into the house (boys did too, but that was many years ago really as C4 left home at 17 and he is now 25). We picked up G2 and G4 last weekend for 3 days and that was a very special time. I love having some of my Grand children in NZ even if they do live a 3 hour drive away.

Our family was also in 2 magazine publications. C4 and D3’s Wedding was featured in ‘New Zealand Weddings’ and G1 was in ‘Dolly’ magazine as a model! I am so proud of them 🙂 and have copies of both magazines to keep forever!!!

I am once again very involved in mainly music and have been leading the second session all term (and helping with the first session). We have 40 families coming along to that session (the same at the first) and we have lots of fun. I love singing and as I don’t worship lead anymore it gives me an opportunity to keep music and singing alive in my life…and hopefully blesses a lot of people at the same time.

Mum and Dad celebrated 64 years of marriage on the 4th of March. Well done I say! We all went out for tea and spent the night chatting about our childhood! We had lots of laughs and I think Mum and Dad realised just how much we appreciated our family and them as our parents. We took some photos outside the restaurant and had a laugh as we looked at the photos. The restaurant name was ‘The Ugly Duck’ and we took the photo under the sign. I was right under it! It was a bit of a shame that Rodney wasn’t there (as all four of us girls were), but we did get a family group photo on Christmas day 🙂

I’ll attach some photos as a sample of the time from November 2011 until now March 2012. Have fun browsing them xx

 

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Australian Holiday Sept-Oct 2011

I have just got back home from 15 days in Australia. C1 was going to the Formula 1 car races in Singapore and D1 suggested that I go over to keep her company. Booked a 5 day holiday and then my work said that I needed to take 10 days off in a row…immediately. I didn’t argue! Phoned and changed the flights and ended up with a 15 day holiday. The first 3 days we stayed in Sydney and then we all flew up to Brisbane for 6 days! Stayed at the Hilton and lived the hard life….NOT!!! Visited Australia Zoo, Dreamworld, Southbank Beach and did some shopping….and lots of swimming in the lovely warm hotel pool! Back to Sydney and stayed for the last 4 days..home on the 15th day away! C1 and D1 always spoil me with a wonderful experience every time I stay with them!! And…I just love seeing G1 and G3! My 2 lovely grand daughters. Also spent some time with C4 and D3. They are both doing very well in Sydney and as newly weds…well they haven’t been married for a year yet. I managed to do 15 scrapbook pages using the valuable time every evening. Funny how I manage to get pages done while away on holiday, but not while at home! Darn housework and the busyness of life! Makes me want to quit work and spend more time doing crafts…that I love doing….life is too short…but I do need the money to spend on crafts as well…so I will continue to work!

 

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Latest events

Well…I am seriously thinking about finishing up with Stampin Up. (AND I HAVE GIVEN UP). The new catalogue comes out on the 1st of September, and I have a huge decision to make. Do I buy the new products and keep up with all the Stampin Up supplies…or do I finish up and just use the products I already have? They do have some really lovely stamping and scrapbooking supplies available, but as I don’t sell (as a business) it does get a little extravagant buying the products for my own use every quarter….and I do have heaps of supplies! Only trouble is that I now have an amazing scrapbook room! Yes a ROOM! We have converted our family/games room into a big craft/movie room! It is fantastic…and nearly available to use…I just need to load it up!

 

I am so blessed….I can’t wait to have all my scrapbook supplies set out and have our next Wednesday Scrapbooking group meeting out in the room! Photos will follow I can assure you!

So can you see my dilemma? I could turn Stampin Up into a business and work it from home. But do I want to turn my hobby into my work? Will I still enjoy scrapbooking as much or will it become less interesting because it will be my job?

I have a decision to make and I have to make it before the end of September.

The latest family news is that I have spent today at hospital with C5. She got her Gall Bladder out as it was causing her all sorts of problems and the doctors advice was to get it out so she would be more healthy. I have taken tomorrow off work to pick her up and be her nurse for the day. Me nursing a second year trainee nurse! It is going to be a interesting day. She was looking much better when we left her tonight so hopefully she will be able to just have a restful day reco-operating..and I can just spoil her 🙂

I have also had 2 weeks in Sydney seeing the family there. C1 and D1 went to Singapore for 5 days, so I drove G1 to the bus stop and G3 to school each day. Driving in Sydney isn’t as bad as I though it would be. Once in the car, it was just like driving around home, only the lanes felt a lot narrower! I have taken heaps of photos and will be busy scrapbooking them very soon. I managed to do some scrapbooking while there as well. So in my next post I will try to upload some of my latest pages to share with you.

Until then

Pam P 🙂