Pisa

The morning after reaching Florence (straight from the snow), we went to Pisa to see the tower we had always heard about. We really should have allowed a full day just to go to Pisa but we underestimated how long it would take to get to La Thuille to Florence.

We went by train from Florence to Pisa, a short 1 hour trip with trains leaving every 30 minutes.

Ipods and DS's work wonders on the trains, I explored the My Chemical Romance cd "The Black Parade" on that trip (I still see the images going past when I listen to the songs). Once in Pisa, it's a 30 minute walk from the station to the tower - yes there are buses but we wanted to see what the town was like.

You have to have a few photo's of behaving a bit stupidly in front of this building. It is a spectacular tower.

I always thought it was just on a bit of a tilt - but this shows just how much it is on a lean. You have to be at least 8 to climb the tower, we figured this must be for a good reason (ie fall through something), so we skipped the climb. There was an excellent system in place for climbing tickets - you go to the ticket office and they give you the 15 minute time slot that the queue is up to (ie, we could buy a ticket for 2 hours time, but could wander around and not line up for 2 hours).

The obligatory photo - sorry. The tower was built as a bell tower for the Duomo and started in 1173. It was lopsided by 3rd story - where they tried to compensate and build up the other side. But the extra weight made it worse and they thought it might fall over, so they reduced the weight in early 2000 so that it was stable.

The battistero behind the duomo was also a stunning building - the whole thing exceptionally gothic. J and I really appreciate anything made of stone, given our background we have an appreciation of the effort that has gone into the construction of a structure this huge (I know, I need to see the pyramids.

This is behind the duomo -look at the angle on that tower.....

The front of the duomo.


A wider shot (I have no idea why this has been taken from the ground - ask one of the kids).

The amazing door on the back of the duomo - it's a romanesque panel that depicts scenes from the life of Christ and is from the 14th century.

How breathtaking is the detail on this wall?


Another door - another amazingly carved surface.

Just one of many mosaic's. We didn't take the kids inside - there were many other churches they were going to be dragged into - why over do it?

Isn't that amazing?

The walk back was down charming little streets like above. Not tough and almost deserted (guess everyone goes by bus from station to main sights).

The Arno river, just north of the central train station. Looks a bit dreary on a rainy winters day, but rustic to say the least. Stunning buildings on either side (that you can't see). Will go back when this one is a bit older.

Pompeii

We went to Pompeii on our last day in Rome. Took 2 hours on a train to Napoli and then 1/2 hour on a local narrow guage railway that goes around the circumference of Mt Vesuvius (circumvesuviana - no signs of whereabouts until almost out of central station - but only a 5 minute walk). Really cheap little railway, running on time every 20 minutes (but beware on way back, it's the 2nd last station, not the last - we almost stayed on).

When you get to the Pompeii station - you have no idea that this massive area is 2 minutes walk from the station.

We passed on the tour guide (big mistake) - but we were still smarting over having to pay adult prices for the kids. We didn't get a map either, so it was a bit of a mystery for a while (until I realised everyone else seemed to know where they were going, and a lovely chinese guy told us they handed out maps where we bought the tickets - anyway -went back and got one and that got us in the right direction). My god I am a whinger aren't I?

This is inside the communal baths - the volcano erupted in 79 AD, 17 years after they had an earthquake that had done considerable damage.

The handset tour guides were pretty good - they had a seperate one for the kids and you literally could have spent 4 hours listening to all of the seperate talks they had (in fact C girl did listen to it from start to finish - more on that later).

That's a big bath at the end - amazing preservation.

Inside one of the houses. This is where C girl was taking a video. She was listening to the whole tour guide, not following the number that we were at. We didn't realise - so when we said "no 29" we thought she would have turned to it. We were all wearing our personal headphones (in the case of J and I - noise reducing earphones). The audio started outside, and said, turn left, take the first turn to the right, walk in the door.........giving a path of where to go. C girl, busy making her video and not listening to what we were listening to, turned around after a few minutes and realised her whole family had disappeared - thousands of kilometers from anyone that knew her, in a country that does not speak english.

The first we heard about it was when the people inside the building looked up and turned in alarm - I noticed the other people's reaction, noticed there were only two kids and took off the earphones and heard a god almighty scream, followed by "MUMMY"........then another scream. The poor kid thought we had abandoned her.

We were not forgiven in a hurry.

This is a quaint little fountain at the back of someone's house.

It is quiet an eerie feeling walking around a massive town that is devoid of people. You can almost imagine people going about their business - and the preservation of some of the buildings is amazing (I don't think our house will be standing in 1950 years).

The kids found it very interesting - especially Bear, who only just finished studying archeology in IPC (international primary curriculum).

Our only wish is that there were more plaster molds of where people were found when they excavated. Not enough bodies for our liking (no it's not sick, it would help identify just how big a disaster it was).

Light rain - no problem

This is a temple that was damaged in the earthquake in 62 AD but the renovation was paid for by a 5 year old boy. His father was a former slave (who had become wealthy) but could not become part of the "high society". His son, never having been a slave, could. So with a sizeable donation to the community, his 5 year old became an upstanding member of the community and on the council. Good way to get around the system.


Can you believe J walked around with a backpack containing a video camera and our good nikon but then failed to take a single photo (these are from my point and shoot camera).

When we got back to Napoli, the train had been delayed by 2 hours (not initially, but eventually). J was feeling really sick. So I took the kids on small excursions of Napoli (well, a couple of blocks from central station). Not too exciting, but the best patisieri I have ever seen (think the spelling is wrong Manny), and a great little supermarket. Even found a ROAST chicken (yes, didn't see too many of them). Back in Rome at 8:30 - too late for crepes......boo hoo.

Was it worth the 5-6 hours of train trips and a 2 hours delay. It definitely was - the documentaries have showed lots, so it's really familiar, but there is something to walking the streets personally and watching the kids discover stuff that is pretty awesome. I think trains was the best way to go for our family (probably wouldn't be for a couple), as it was 20% the price of the tours (and didn't include a "shell factory" tour). Overall time was about the same. Definitely worth the trip though. Won't go back for another visit though - seen enough.

We're all going on a summer holiday

We're all going on a summer holiday,
but we're going to the snow.
I just wish more snow would fall over there,
Cause otherwise I'll be have to do something other than ski........

and the kids can't do happy hour for more than an hour (as L can confirm when Bear ran through the snow with no shoes on (who's that kid out there without a shoe on - oh dear (negative 20 degrees celcius), that's one of mine.....oops.

Who could be sad to be going on 3 weeks holiday to a country you have only ever dreamed of going to???????? Real Italian food - I have only ever heard of you......

Not me - new snow or not - I am having a FREEEZING white christmas - I AM SO HAPPY.

In 2 days, my wandering husband (who was home for 6 hours last night before leaving again (he left last friday)) - is going to be with his family for 3 whole weeks. Yes, there will be a blackberry involved, but as a friend of mine once said (referring to me and my 9 weeks a year of leave) - people who can go away for more than 2 weeks at a time don't have a real job.

I have no problem with that analogy for me, but J has a real job, hence the blackberry, laptop and the occasional distraction. But I'll take it over no holidays (or gasp, shorter holidays). There - I said it (good thing he does not ever read this).

Have a great family christmas.

Melbourne

I really am unsure as to why a giant clam purse represents Melbourne, but here are the kids outside the Melbourne post office in Bourke Street Mall.

We spent a lovely afternoon in Melbourne - bookshop mainly (where it is warm and next door to Starbucks (there are only a handful of starbucks in Aus - they shut most of them down in August 2008 because too much competition).

After a dinner of pancake kitchen (we walked past a crepe place earlier in the day - thinking too expensive - we will find another place - only to find no other place and the crepe shop shut when we got back).

Then it was off to the AFL that night. C girl was less than impressed -wanted to go back to the hotel as she was BORED. This is about 20 minutes before the game started - the empty seats are the pre booked seats - most people are at the bar drinking (it is that sort of game). It's an indoor stadium that seats 80,000. Temp inside was only 16 degrees celcius (whereas it would have been 5 outside), so not too bad at all.

HOME

Finally,


Life has returned almost to normal. We got back from Aus a few weeks ago on a monday. I spent Tue and Wed at work and then we went to Sambolo from Thur - Mon for an extended long weekend. Unfortuanately, J left on the Tue morning after returning and didn't return until last Sat lunchtime. Missed all their remaining time on holiday - and most importantly a 5 day weekend at the beach.


It was back to school this week. Unfortunately missing a few familiar faces.......the downside of an international school where people come and go regularly.


We had a great holiday. We were in Aus for 26 days, with the fantastic MIL and FIL for 2 weeks and then Victoria for 1 1/2 weeks. 8 days spent skiing.

The kids did 7 1/2 days of ski school. The big plus is - we don't think they need that sort of time in ski school now. Just parent "give me a break" time in future. So the plans for italy may change......there is a good chance that the family will vote for 13 days of skiing instead of just one week as previously voted. J is pushing .......skiing, or looking at really old buildings.......which one do you want to do?


The big bad wolf was a lot more relaxed about skiing this year. We stayed in a penthouse unit just behind J. It was ski in - ski out - what a difference. The weather was shocking with only a few days of sunshine - but because of the weather - I had to lash out and buy a pair of spyder pants - for retail price........I'm not sure all of our ski clothes together come to the amount that we paid - but I was saturated....so it was worth it. And yes Lynda - they are black ........ aarrgggghhhh .... the conformity will kill me.


More on the holiday in future posts. Still trying to get my head around who it is I am posting for. My Dad has just joined the land of the dribbling zombies ...... nursing home for the aged and impaired ... so definitely not for him to keep in touch (not that he would have ever shown an interest previously). But this is no longer for my Mum, I've stopped crying everyday, but only just (thanks to the time in Aus with my MIL and FIL).


Best thing about trip - we managed to catch up with even more family and friends than normal this year, which was fantastic (and we have decided to settle in Brisbane if we have to go back to Aus one day).


Worst thing about trip - the trip home (despite being in business class) was slightly ruined by J's big boss checking in behind us and then being on the same flights/lounge the entire way home (14 hours). Ssshhh was something the kids heard on a regular basis from their father. But there was no stopping them on the touchdown into Jakarta.....the normal 5, 4, 3, 2 1, we're home .... yeaaaahhhh. (Come on - why would we want to stop that sort of enthusiasm - We just signed on for another year).

Update

I have finally got to the place I want to be..........on the exercise front.

I am now swimming 2km at least twice a week (luckily or unluckily C girl is doing early morning swims at school twice a week so I can join her (or not)). I am running on the treadmill at least 3 times a week. Once a week I can squeeze in 10km in 1 hour, but usually it's a calm 9km. I competed in a biathlon a few weeks ago and although I didn't come close to winning (my swimming technique let me down), I passed 5 people on the run and came in closer to the front than the end. I am now working on my technique and can do the 2km in under 55 minutes - easily..........all with the assistance of my latest toy - the ipod skin, so I can listen to music as I swim (how good is that)?

I need some photos on this blog. I just looked and there have been no photos downloaded onto our computer since January - although there have been lots taken......talk it will have to be.

We went to Singapore last weekend from Wed - Sun. Our good mates at jenjenqld.blogspot... came with us and we had the adjacent units in a really nice apartment complex thing going on.

We finally went to Sentosa, went to Underwater world, the gondola, the toboggan rides (going up in the chair lift we discovered that our girls are excellent spitters (yes Spitters). A skill neither Jen or I have ever been able to acquire. We finished our day there with a swim at the beach (kids) while we tested the service in the seaside bar (good drinks, bit slow on the nachos).

On the friday we went to the Science centre, saw the da vinci exhibit and the imax movie on sea monsters. On friday night we went to the night safari at the zoo. It was excellent - so glad we have finally been, and I can tick off the zoo in singapore now because going during the day sounds horrificly hot.

On Sat we did a full day of.......SHOPPING. I know - I say I hate it. But we did shopping for sports equipment, toys and books. Things that we all love. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and then went for another walk up Orchard Road because J forgot to buy the speedy shoes (for quick transitions) that he NEEDED. I bought a dress because I went past it on the escalator. Bear told me I should buy two because I couldn't decide between fabrics - he is SO going to be a popular husband to some lucky girl.

Anyway - great family time, great adventure and a really great experience to be had instead of continually going to Sambolo.

And yes - we flew with Singapore airlines - but there were NO queus - so work that one out. Queus in Aus, no queus in Asia.

Bali

Time to get this out of the way before we head to Victoria for a holiday. It had been filed under the "cone of silence", but our kids bring this up regularly and I don't want to explain this in person when we are with our relatives (plus it upsets me for days after talking about it, so I really don't want to go through this while on a holiday). It's not spoken about with hushed tones, it's more said as a fact and whatever point was being made is made without any argument from anyone.

It was also filed under the cone because I am aware that some people thought we were irresponsible to our childrens safety for bringing them to Indonesia, I didn't want to prove them right (this doesn't by the way, but it can be misconstrued).

We went to Bali for Idul Fitri. The holiday started on the last Sat in Sept. We flew in to Bali and went to our luxury villa. We were sharing the villa and in total there were 7 adults and 10 kids. There was more than enough bedding (in fact two rooms remained empty), there was a pool table, pool, library, 6 tvs (but only 1 used for the wii and the other for dvd's when kids needed to chill). It was nice, cozy, roomy and also great to catch up with a friend (JW) who had moved back to Aus the christmas before and her two kids.

Some of us were energetic. Some of us just wanted to chill. On the first afternoon the energetics went in search of the beach. We found it not long later, walked a bit and came home happy to have found surf, sand, shops and fresh air.

On the sunday afternoon we planned to go to the beach. It was 3 in the afternoon before we got ourselves organised. Dear Dad didn't really want to come. He wanted to stay on his computer and chill. Another parent wanted to stay home as well. As Dear Dad was travelling on business the next day (only for one night) I tried to guilt him to come and spend some time with his kids (he did have time to himself so don't defend him too much). 10 kids and 5 parents set off - Dear Dad came running down the road to catch up with us after we had left.

When we got to the beach, we stopped in the shade and applied sunscreen, took the clothes off and ran out to Seminyak Beach. We didn't look at anything, flags, signs, nothing - just ran straight out to our friends.

There were 3 dads and 3 mums. 1 mum of 2 kids, 1 dad of 3 kids, us and another couple with 2 kids. The single dad and my hubs decided very quickly to run out and join the surf - out the back. They didn't ask anyone - they just agreed and ran out (I am getting over that, truly I am). The surf out the back was wild, we wanted no part of it - we were happy with just going up to our knees/thighs.

I remember looking at the couple holding their two kids hands, I remember thinking - smart. I had my two youngest, one in each hand. The single mum JW had her youngest by the hand. 4 girls were off to the side and the youngest child of the single dad was safely playing on the sand. I remember looking out to sea and not being able to see either of the men's heads. I remember staring intently, looking for a head, not being able to see that much because of the glare and no sunnies (I was there to swim). Later we found out that the men, although experienced surfers/swimmers had gone out the back, realised it was huge and very dangerous and then struggled to get back to shore.

After a while? I remember seeing one head, then recognising his top, then turning to JW and saying - well, the breadwinner is alive, that's a relief, I was really worried. 4 girls to the left of my eye. I went over towards them, they were up to their thigh. I told my youngest two to go play on the sand with their friend.
Two girls had come in, I was on my way over to the other two (C girl and her friend G). When I was about 2 m away I yelled, "come on girls - come back"........"we can't" they said. Not that nervous, but a little scared. I went over to them. I held them by the arm to keep them from going out. We were all swept under and out.

I remember pulling them up, waves crashing, don't know how long for. I remember seeing G in, she had lost her top or her bottom, but I knew she was okay. Don't know how she got in.

We got sucked out so quickly. I remember being in really deep water, with waves crashing and being under the water and it being black. I remember going the wrong way, but my ears hurt, so I turned around. I felt C girl with my foot and went back and got her. I remember getting her up by her sunshirt, waves crashing, coming up, looking for her, diving under, holding her arm. Always looking for her, she was always behind me, being swept out, holding her arm. She was really calm, she didn't cling to my neck, she didn't cry. She asked how we were ever going to get in, the beach was a long way away. I told her that her father would come get us, she believed that, I did too. I remember waving to the shore. She was calm. I knew I could swim, I knew she could swim, we can swim for km's, we have done it in the pool. We were both swimming freestyle when the waves weren't crashing on us, but we were going backwards.

After a while I could see both of the "surfer" men coming out towards us. Her dad broke through the crashing waves , I remember seeing him just 10 meters in front of me (not sure I have ever been so happy to see him), she was behind me again, being sucked out further, I went back and got her again. He came, he took hold of her, got her on a massive wave. I remember her catching that wave to about 2 m from our other friend that had tried to come out. We were screaming his name, he turned, he saw her. He would get her in.

My lifesaver (husband) came back through the waves, held my arm while I could catch my breath. Then, the waves calmed down, they stopped crashing continually and we started to make our way in. I remember the life saver coming just as my feet touched the ground. That's when I saw my beautiful strong girl stagger onto the beach naked but very much alive, thanks to the efforts of her dad and our friend. No one on the beach seemed to know what was going on.

The lifesaver dragged me onto the board, I looked behind, looking for my man. As we hit the beach I could see that he was behind me. I remember being amazed that we had all made it out. He later told me that although he hadn't put a seconds thought into the fact that he was coming back out, he does remember thinking - Oh NO, I just exhausted myself getting into the beach, now I have to go back out.

I was on the beach, I could hear everything but I couldn't do anything. Shock. Luckily our german friend (the attentive father from the start) was calm and knew what to do (they had no idea anything was happening until it was finished). The ambulance officer kissed me on the forehead a few times on the way to hospital - I found out later that it was because so few people make it to the ambulance alive.

The next day a 25 year old French woman died on the same beach. She was the 70th person that year to have died on that beach (similar number for Kuta beach). It wasn't even October.

On the monday, my hero picks me up on a motorbike - was he kidding? He wasn't taking this seriously at all.

The whole incident had taken about 5 - 10 minutes. Our friend JW asked the next day why we decided to go swimming out the back - she had no idea that C girl and G had been swept out.

The rest of the holiday wasn't a total bust. We went back to that same beach. We walked 500m up the beach to where it said it was safe to swim. We taught the kids to look at the waves, was the tide going in, going out, how much undertow. If it's flat near the beach and massive at the back, don't even go in up to your toes. There is a reason why the surf is like that.

We were total idiots to have just gone in where we had, we practically had done everything wrong. We were over confident Aussie Yobos (Aussies die on the beach as well, even ones who have had a lot of experience (as I have)). We were so keen to go surfing/swimming that we put our kids lives at risk. Don't comment that, we know.

(She really is a tough as she looks)

What did we learn.

1. Swimming lessons save lives (I had had 1 hour lessons every week for the semester before and C girl has had 1 hour lessons for the last 5 years, both where 1km - 2km is regular). If she had panicked and clung to my neck - I would not be writing this.
2. Don't be too confident - the ocean is a massive place (and before you say we should have swum paralel to the beach - well we would have had to swim about 2km to actually have made a difference).
3. All available adults should be in the ocean while their kids are in the ocean - if I was watching from the shore line it would have been too late.
4. Don't ever rely on Life Savers in Bali (or probably any third world country) - they are there in name only, I tried to find the one who dragged me in, but I could only find people cleaning their motorbike watching the road (not the beach). Don't blame them, they have not been trained.
5. Read the warnings - they aren't just for tourists without swimming/beach experience (I grew up in a coastal town and went to the beach regularly). Google the area you are going to, I had no idea that so many people had died in Bali until after I got home.
6. Every day is a gift - make sure the people you love know that you love them.
7. Coming here didn't endanger their lives (we wouldn't be here if they were in danger), we did through 5 - 10 minutes of stupidity (which is worse).
8. Our kids know that when it comes to it, their Mum and Dad WILL do everything to save their lives.

Our family became closer due to this incident. She is still toxic to my sleep though. If I happen to be touching her while I fall asleep (like on an airplane trip for instance), I am transported back in time to when I almost lost her. We booked our holiday to Canada while we were still there. Life is too short.

Anyway, it's out there now. No photos - we have some, but I don't really want to see them.

Holidays 2009

It is official, only some booked, xmas will be before Feb finished.

Holidays 2009

March - Long weekend in west Java

April - 1 1/2 weeks in Portland and Melbourne, Australia

May - Long weekend in west Java

June - Very long weekend KL (Malaysia) for C girls interschool sports (still has to make team)

July/Aug - 3 weeks in QLD / 1 week in Vic (skiing) - kids first skiing in Aus

Sep - 1 week in Vietnam (C girl has a friend to visit and this is new country for kids and I)

Oct/Nov - 1 weeks - Phillipines (dependent on Hubs conference (new country for kids and I)

Nov - long weekend - Phuket - C girls football

Dec - 3 weeks in Italy (new country for everyone)

There will be a few other long weekends when we go to various places around Java, but they are usually spur of the moment. Plus we are going to try a few new locations.

A very exciting year planned.

Think this might fit under the category of why I love living here.