06.30 Christmas morning

Yes, we did get up at this ridiculous hour - only to find one of them had been awake for over three and a half hours

Stockings opened, breakfast eaten, more presents, off to church, more presents, BBQ lunch and then ........................... the pool!!

As the temperature was 40 degrees we all went in to cool down before we went for our usual Christmas afternoon outing ........................... only this time it was the beach!!

And then after some time watching a DVD Christmas present it was off to bed - thank goodness!!

Boxing Day - and it was decided to take it a bit easier so we went to the zoo. Still 40 degrees and everything is very hot including our drinking water - not good, in fact very bad - tastes horrible!! We saw some interesting animals as well as the usual ones, like a Tree Kangaroo, a Monitor, an enormous Tortoise over one metre in length, Red Pandas, a Quokka - look it up, - and hot Children and Hotter Grandparents!

When we got home - guess what - the pool again. Dinner, DVD, bed - YES.

Today is a bit cooler only 37 degrees - I'm at home, Suzanne is shopping and the rest of them .........................No not the pool, they are on the beach.

We hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year and hopefully some better weather.

Roger & Suzanne get wet this time.

There we were doing the Christmas thing and putting the ouside lights up when it started to rain. So, as the electrics were not connected, it was safe to continue and the rain soon stopped anyway. Our contribution to the festivities were not the same as some of the other houses near us, they must spend a fortune on lights and electricity to run them - bit like the UK in that respect.

On Sunday we went to church, as we have been doing regularly since we got here, and enjoyed seeing Isaac playing in the band.

In the evening we went to another outside carol concert, very different to the previous one we went to, located in an amphitheatre with seating on the raised grass around three sides. It rained a little while we were there but this did not spoil the event, which included some ballet as well as the singing, all very cultured.

Monday saw us visiting our friends Lynne and Aldo and family at Mandurah where they were having a few days holiday. This is the view from the front window of the house they were staying in. I think I can easily say that I really missed my boat!! We stayed there for three days and went to see the local waterfront, shops and beaches. We played beach cricket, went kayaking, watched them fishing in the sea catching puffers - which literally puff up as a form of defence - and enjoyed the local ice cream.

We returned on Wednesday in time to go up to Perth to see a nativity play featuring real sheep, chicken, donkey, camels and of course, people. It was a very good production. Now we are back with our VERY excited grandchildren doing all the shopping and last minute preparations!! We have just marzipaned the 2nd Christmas cake!

Happy snowy Christmas to you all from baking Perth - believe it or not one or two are slightly envious!!! xx

They all got wet this time

Monday

Yes! you've guessed correctly, we found more water. This time we were at a place called Hillary's Boat Harbour just north of Perth. As the name suggests it is a marina but it also has a leisure park - if you can call this type of activity leisure! Pete and Nic and all the children had a great time in the water chutes and also on the High Ropes and Crazy Golf.

We took it easy and watched and took lots of photos, although Jean did take a swim in the harbour - such clear water! Needless to say they all slept very well that night but we needed to be up early next morning as there was an inspection on their home by the rental agency.

We have been spending lots of time doing Christmas shopping with the family - nothing changes even when you are on holiday - and also getting my hair cut - it grows well in the sun!!

Temperature still in the upper 20's and lower 30's - life is so hard here! Jean, Suz and Lois caught the train (which goes up the middle of the highway) to Perth yesterday evening to go to a shop and see the Christmas decorations - they were great - need to take the rest of the family. On Sunday eve there is another Carols in the Park which we plan to go to.

We are going south next week for a few days to Mandurah to stay with Lynne and Aldo and their family who are on a short holiday there.

We hope all your preparations are well in hand and the weather has not held you up too much!

Launching Grandma

It was a very sunny and hot day today so we all, except Suzanne who was working, went down on the beach with the kayaks. Jean decided she wanted to have a go, and she got on very well which pleased her.

We have spent the last week visiting other people as Josh and Lois have had exams at school and needed some space to revise. We have been to the Serpentine - no not in Hyde Park London but a reservoir dam south and east of Perth which at the moment is very low on water as is all of Western Australia. We have also been back to Kings Park to have a look at Perth again by daylight.

Preparations for Christmas are progressing well but it is very strange being here in the middle of summer and hearing Christmas music being played everywhere.

Suzanne is now actively looking for somewhere to rent and we have been spending some time helping her look at properties - as you do when you are on holiday!!

Now that the children have broken up from school we will be planning a few outings and doing the Grandparent bit of entertaing them and providing them with lots of ice creams etc - maybe.

Blue Seas, Blue Skies & Wet Boys

The other day Pete and Josh went down onto the beach to do some bodyboarding. Josh has been having some lessons at school and wanted to show off his prowess!! Did we ever have lessons like that when we were at school? - I don't think so! I quite think that after school breaks-up next week we will be encouraged to spend more time on the beach doing similar activities. Whether you will see any pictures of us doing things like this awaits to be seen! Unfortunately we still don't seem to have had time yet to sort out all our photos taken up to now - about 2,000 - to keep the best ones and and put the others in directories.

We are going off in the next hour to see Lynne. and Aldo and family north of Perth which will be nice as we have not seen all the family together for about 3 years. While we are there we will be going to their church which will be different.

Josh and Lois have end of year exams next week so there is a lot of revising going on at the moment.Then they are off school until the beginning of February! Its a little cooler here at present so is quite pleasant, although the wind seems to get up every afternoon. Yesterday evening we went to Kings Park to view Perth city lit up - it was quite magical.

Punch-up in the park

Our time in New South Wales has at last come to an end and we have moved on to our family in Perth. However, before we left NSW we travelled down south of Sydney with Jean's cousin to collect their camping trailer. This meant we had to spend time on some campsites down there. On one of these sites we had visiting Kangaroos, two of these decided they needed to establish who was the boss! Saying goodbye to Jean's cousin John and Anne was sad but we were getting excited as we were going to see our girls again soon - or so we thought.

Our plane from Sydney was delayed by 3 hours due to a severe thunder storm at Melbourne airport (where our plane was stuck). Anyway we eventually got to Perth late in the evening to be met by Suz. Nic and Pete, the children were waiting for us when we arrived at their home - great excitement all round! The temperature here is about 36 degrees C which is a fraction warmer than it is back home!! At least we an cool off in the pool! So far we have helped the children do their paper rounds, been to their church and visited a couple of shopping centres - where it is nice and cool! On Friday we are off to Lynne and Aldo's for a couple of nights and then staying with Mike and Mary for 5 nights (this is where Suz spent her first 5 months). Its a bit of a squash here as there are 9 of us in the house (there is also a young guy here from Sidcup working with Pete for the next year!!)

Family in New South Wales

This is the house my cousin John and Anne live in on the edge of the MaraMara National Park. He has a lot of land and buildings surrounding it and a lot of frogs at night!! Today we are up at Anna Bay in the Port Stephens area 2 hours train ride from John's at cousin David and Jenny's house. They have 13 six day old chicks in a box in the lounge so they are causing plenty of interest. Internet coverage here is great and Stephen re-installed our skype for us as we have been having trouble. It is a beautiful area with lots of great beaches and coves. Yesterday evening we spent in Nelson Bay. Tomorrow we are off to see friends the other side of the Blue Mountains for a couple of days and then on Sunday plan to go and visit Jean's aunt again in her dementia home. Time is going quickly so it won't be long now before we reach Perth!!! Isaac has recently changed schools and seems much happier so that is good - had a quick chat with him this morning. We are enjoying the warm weather - gloat, gloat! It's dinner time so must go!

OZ - the beginning of our stay here.

Well we have at last recovered from all our driving and sicknesses and are enjoying our stay here with Jean's cousin north of Sydney. The weather has been contrary to the forcast and been very warm and sunny which is very nice. We have been to visit Jean's aunt in her care home and found her looking very well which was a great encouragement. Yesterday we all went down to Sydney to see some of the sights including some sculptures by the sea at Bondi Beach. These were a mixed bunch of artwork some of which we did not begin to understand and others were very good and entertaining, well you can't please everybody can you? After that we returned to the city and saw the sun setting over the harbour just before we caught our ferry back up the river on our way home. Tomorrow eve we are going to the Sydney NFI church where, we understand, Terry Virgo is preaching which will be nice. Then next week we are going to visit Jean's other cousin near Newcastle for a couple of nights. Will keep you posted on what we get up to etc.

Catch-up on New Zealand

I know you have all missed me so much so I have put a picture of an old geyser here to remind you. This was taken in Rotarua on our way down North Island in New Zealand. Although it is a spectacular sight, so is the smell!! We saw some amazing sights all over NZ and we will try and get some of our photographs where you can see them - will let you know later where they are. South Island is very mountainous and there was snow on the top of a lot of the peaks. We went on some high and windy passes through St Josef and the Fox Glacier and then on to Lake Wanaka and Milford Sound. We came back via Queenstown which was a very sports orientated city where we went up the Gondola to the top of the mountain.

We then travelled across country to the sea at Timaru and then inland again across the area where the epicentre of the big earthquake was, to Christchurch. A lot of the roads were being rebuilt. They even had a small tremor on the day we were there - apparently it happens most days. We went on a tram ride round the city getting off and on at various locations. Unfortunately Jean had to visit the Dr for an antibiotic to fight an infection which had caused a bad shaking fit the previous night.

Friday we flew to Sydney to stay with Jean's cousin 1hr north of the city. It had been very wet there but cleared up the next day - just as Jean had to spend another 2 hours in the Dr's surgery getting another antibiotic as the first one did not suit! 2 thunder storms have already stopped the posting of this blog so we will get on with it quick while we are still on line!!

Leaving NZ

We are currently at Christchurch airport waiting to be called for our flight to Sydney. Sorry there has been no blog for 10 days but we have tried since last Sat but both times the internet was so slow we could not post it! Will fill you in when we get to my cousin's in Sydney. Hoping to go to Sydney NFI Church on Sunday where Terry Virgo is preaching = he has just spent 5 days with Pete and Nic,

So we are both still alive and have seen some fantastic sights!

At last some real news from NZ

We have been to some outstanding places and seen some amazing sights while we have been here in New Zealand. On one of our trips on a boat in the Bay of Islands we saw some dolphins and one of them swam right under the front of the boat and this is it!! We have now moved down onto South Island and are driving for hundreds of miles on our way to Milford Sound which is supposed to be amazing. Will let you know about it later - hopefully not so long this time! The scenery here is fantastic and we went to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes yesterday - Thanks Ann for the suggestion. The weather is varied between dry and sunny, wet and miserable, and low cloud and not much to see!! Must go running out of time - sorry.

Latest from NZ!

Sorry we haven't been in touch for a week but we are having awful difficulty in getting internet access - we are currently in a museum in Wellington!

We are seeing some awesome sights - geysers, lakes, mountains, Maori culture and travelling lots of miles! We have been to Russell, Auckland again, Rotorua and Lake Taupo. We are setting off tomorrow early on the crossing to South Island and then travelling down the west coast for the rest of the holiday. We hope to put some picture on if and when we get better access to the internet. Keep watching and will try and spend longer on the blog when we can. Lots of love to all.

New Zealand

Well this is the first time we have been able to get access to the internet since we arrived in NZ - apart from spending £1 a minute from hotel in Auckland! We had good flights from Peru but two long airport waits - 8 hrs and 18 hrs. During the 18 hours in LA we took a bus tour round the city which was good. We met up with friends Gavin and Liz in Auckland and spent 2 nights in a hotel suite on the 23rd floor! Great views. Spent a lot of time in Devonport watching boats - what's new! Picked up motorhome yesterday and have just spent the night with Corrie and John in Whangerei overlooking boats and water - again! I used to work with Corrie and 4 years ago she moved out here from Polegate - its stunning and she sends her love to all of those she also worked with in UK!

We are now moving off to Bay of Islands and then south again. Sorry no photos available yet - might be a while but will catch up when we arrive at my cousin's in Sydney!!

Farewells and tears!!

We have finished working at the mountain project and were invited to a farewell party to celebrate and say our goodbyes. It all started at lunchtime with a lunch with Americo and Mary, the pastors of the church and the mountain project, and then followed by entertainment by and for some of the children. Part of this was face painting for helpers and a few children, Jean felt she had to be part of this activity and you can see the magnificent result! We followed this with a party for the children and then it was time to say our goodbyes. This proved to be quite an emotional time as some special relationships had been developing over the time we have been here. The results of this were some interesting effects on the faces of those who had been painted, streaky lines, washed out eyes and other similar marks!

Today we went to church in the morning where Chris and Encarni, members of our team spoke and translated and we had to say more farewells. This was followed by lunch in a local restaurant together with the pastor and his family - and, yes, you've guessed more farewells and tears. Tomorrow we have a rest day to do shopping, packing, re-packing, and generally getting ready to move on to New Zealand where our next part of our blog will come from.

Thanks for following our travels!

WOW, WOW and more WOW's

We spent Sunday and Monday sightseeing some of the important local historical sights. The most spectacular, of course, was Machu Picchu - WOW, Awesome, Outstanding etc etc. Words alone cannot begin to describe this magnificent Inca monument. Perched high up in the Andes, 20 minutes drive up a very winding road, this Inca town has fantastic views all around. If you have the opportunity to visit this part of the world this has got to be a "must visit" place. On the way to Machu Picchu we visited Moray which is thought to be an Inca site for aclimatising plants for high altitude. We also visited Moras which are Salt Baths now operated by local people. We arrived back from our visits very late on Monday night only to start working again first thing on Tuesday morning - not good. We only have two more working days left and then we can relax for three days before our next leg.

An exhausting week

We have come to the end of our first working week and are totally exhausted. Took time off yesterday afternoon and went into and went into town for a meal and then some sight-seeing. Roger spent the week making doors for the kitchen units and a pen to keep the toddlers safe while the mums are working and Jean has been cooking with the mums - they have taught us Peruvian recipes - everything cooked from scratch! Most of the team have been ill at some point - there is so much dust! However everyone is well enough to set off the Machu Picchu in the next quarter of an hour - a 2 day excursion. We had hoped to download some pictures of us working at the project - but haven't had time. Adios for now and we will add some more news after our trip!

Confessions and exhaustion

I am sorry it's been a few days since we put anything on our blog but I have been plucking up the courage to tell you what I ate the other day-it was Alpaca (sorry Lizzie). It was quite tasty but a bit tough!

The other day we went up to one of the local tourist attractions, Christo Blanco which sits high up above where we are staying. We decided to take it easy and go up by tourist bus, (Jean loved the journey along narrow, cobbled streets and the windy road up the hillside - not) but we were persuaded to walk down which proved not to be that easy. We saw some Inca ruins while we were up there which were very interesting.

The following day was the church's fifteenth aniversary which was a real experience!!! For more information it would be best to read our church blog as I can't begin to explain it all.

On Monday we all went on a coach trip to Pisac to see some more ruins (although Jean can see all the ruins she needs when she looks at me in the morning!!!!). On the way there we decided to visit an animal sanctuary for endangered species, amongst these were a magnificent pair of Condor which were quite tame! Unfortunately we were unable to see the ruins due to a misunderstanding over the prices, but we did spend our time doing retail therapy, Peruvian style, in a local market.

Yesterday we started doing the work we had come to do, as well as sightseeing, which has proved to be a bit of a challenge due to the altitude - more on this later, but we are having great fun as a group!

Peru and its challenges

We have arrived! The journey here was a bit traumatic as we travelled for 24 hrs door to door, some of the flights were changed and redirected. One of these should have been direct and take an hour but we went by two other stops and it took over four hours. So, what with travel fatigue, sleep deprivation and Jean is suffering with altitude sickness, not a very good start to our stay here! Hopefully from here on in it should get better. This is our home for the next three weeks - our room is the one with the balcony, but it's not big enough to sit out on. Today we are eating out and sampling some of the local delicacies - will let you know what I had later.
There is another blog running about all the actities we are doing as a group, the link is http://kingsinperu.blogspot.com/ if you would like to follow that as well.
Will give you an update soon.

A moving experience and moving on

We have just returned from a trip to Ground Zero, what an experience! We went on a tour around the outside of the site given by two ladies who have very personal stories about that day. It was only by being there that we really understood the magnitude of the attack just over nine years ago. The tower 1 is now at 40 floors and still has long way to go. A trip we will always remember - awesome!
Today we move on to Cusco in Peru where we will be meeting up with 11 others from our church and helping with some projects that our friends Roland and Jenny are already involved with.

Washington DC

We have just returned from visiting Jean's uncles grave in Arlington national cemetery. We took this picture of the Iwa Jima memorial to the Marines while we were there (just for your benefit - Alan!).
We also went to the Washington National Cathedral which is amazing considering it was only completed about twenty years ago. Weather great, have now got over jet lag, spending a few days with Jean's aunt before more adventures at the weekend.

First leg!

Now in New Jersey with cousin Andy - jet lag in tow! Arrived in sunny weather but raining today! Went shopping for food for the family welcome party last night. Jean's aunt was particularly pleased to see us. Off to watch Alex play soccer today and then to Washington DC tomorrow to see Ashley at Georgetown Uni and uncle's grave at Arlington cemetery. Many thanks to all of you who rang and sent cards just before we left!

We're almost packed

No this is not the mode of transport we have chosen!!

Our church had a Big Party at Fort Fun on Saturday and there were about 670 people doing silly things like this.

The farewell parties have now finished and the arrival ones will soon begin!

Our home is almost ready for our house-sitter to move in.

For some it's "see you soon" and for others it's "see you next year"!

Last holiday before we set off!

We have just put our caravan away after spending a few days with friends. The weather was typically English - we had some rain! Hence the bbq, the umbrella and mugs of soup. The next few weeks will be spent seeing friends and family and getting the house ready for our house-sitter who is looking after it while we are away. We are now counting down to the off.........

geriatrics on tour

We are currently in the process of getting ourselves ready for this tour of ours. Watch this space!