The Suttons

Janet’s Birthday

2010-09-05T11:22:53-07:00

Posted by Janet.

After an interesting couple of days back at school, it was nice to have something to look forward to on the weekend. On Saturday morning I went to the shops for a few things and then to get my hair cut/coloured. After lunch, Adrian and I then started getting ready for my party. Hilary, Andy, Emily and Oliver came over at about 2.30 to help us set up and then people starting arriving from 3pm onwards. We had a lovely afternoon out in the garden, with mostly friends from school. It gave us all a good chance to catch up after the Summer holidays. We still had a bit of food left over this time, but not as much as last year, so I think we did quite well. After everyone had gone, Toby and Dave stayed to help us clear away and watch me open my presents. I did very well – flowers, photo album, journal, clutch bag with matching scarf, spa voucher, chocolates, board game etc.

Then this morning I opened all my cards and presents from family – jewellery, perfume, books, CDs etc. We had breakfast and then I spoke to everyone back in Oz which was nice, even if only briefly. After lunch I had a go at my new play-along clarinet books that Adrian bought me. There are some Disney books as well as a classical book, so it was a good mix. Other than that we’ve had a lazy day, which I’m making the most of since the kids come back to school tomorrow.

There are a few Birthday photos up now as well. Thank you all very much for my cards, presents and well wishes – I have been very spoilt

Russia Photos

2010-09-04T03:46:06-07:00

Posted by Adrian.

After a pretty massive effort, the photos from Russia are now up. There’s nearly 600 of them so I suggest you get comfy. Since there are so many photos the comments are fairly sparse but I’ve noted the main things and each change of location, so hopefully you can match it up to Janet’s posts.

Russia Summed Up

2010-09-01T05:49:16-07:00

Posted by Janet.

Summary

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our trip. Several people asked us if we knew we were going to be the youngest on board, but we had a feeling that would happen. We didn’t mind at all – we still had a lot of fun, but without young people partying till all hours every night. We’ve made lots of new friends, some of which we will hopefully keep in touch with, even if just via email and our website.

The food on the ship was great – lovely and fresh, and the staff went to a lot of effort to make sure we were happy. The excursions were good value, the guides knew their stuff (except for that one in Yaroslavl) and it was a very relaxing, but educational, trip.

I would highly recommend it to anyone of any age – we have so many great memories

Russia Part 2

2010-09-01T05:48:01-07:00

Posted by Janet.

Monday – Kizhi

Today was a fairly quiet day, mostly spent on the ship. We had the second part of our Russian history lecture in the morning and then a meeting about the optional excursions available in St Petersburg. After lunch our group was taken up to the Captain’s Bridge and told all about the different controls. The Captain has his own cat, who mostly sleeps, but is very cute. Its collar is a life ring and it even has its own little sailors outfit, but unfortunately it wasn’t on at the time. After that we had another Russian lesson and then a Russian tea ceremony, where we learnt all about their tea culture.

We arrived at Kizhi Island at 5pm and started our walking tour. Kizhi is an island on Lake Onega with a beautiful ensemble of wooden churches, chapels and houses. The most impressive thing about the churches (particularly the 22-domed Transfiguration Church) is that they were erected without nails or other metal ties – even the joints were made from wood. In 1951 the island became an open-air museum of old Russian wooden architecture. The photos are amazing, but just don’t do it justice.

We were all onboard by 8pm so that we could leave for Mandrogi (418 km, 1 lock). After dinner (Slavic style) we enjoyed another folklore concert, where we played more games and had more singing, dancing, laughing and screaming!

Tuesday – Mandrogi

Today was a very interesting day. We arrived at Mandrogi at about 11am and had free time to wander around until lunch at 1pm. We visited the Fairy Tale Island, watched masters make traditional Russian souvenirs and just took in the atmosphere. Lunch was a big bbq/picnic. We had shish kebabs, salads, jacket potato, bread rolls, hot drinks, cold drinks and even some lovely pastries for dessert. We all sat on big picnic tables under a huge covered area. The food was still great, but it was nice to have a more relaxed meal, rather than the usual sit down 4 courses.

At about 2.30pm we left for St Petersburg (296 km, 1 lock). In the early evening we had our last Russian language lesson, where we actually spent most of our time rehearsing for the talent show, which took place after dinner. It was supposed to be done in groups, but ended up being done in countries, so all the Aussies got up and sang Waltzing Matilda. All the Dutch did a song, the English did a song, the Americans, Belgian etc. It was a lot of fun and afterwards we were on a bit of a high so we went to one of the lounges for a drink. Robert, Richard, Lindsay and Leanne joined us and after a while Robert and Richard went to bed, which gave us the opportunity to get to know Lindsay and Leanne better. We had a very late night (well after midnight) but it was worth it.

Wednesday – St Petersburg

We arrived at St Petersburg in the morning having travelled 1973 km and passed through 17 locks. After breakfast we spent the morning on a city sightseeing tour, where we got on and off the bus for various ‘photo stops’. The main attraction was the Peter and Paul Fortress, where we had a tour. At the end of the tour (at midday) a blank shot was fired from the cannon and it was pretty impressive!

We had lunch on the ship and then went on an optional excursion to Pavlovsk, a superb palace and park, dating from the 18^th to the 19^th century. Pavlovsk was a summer residence of the Russian Emperor Paul I and his family. We were able to see the unique original furnishing and the restored interior decoration. Needless to say Adrian went a bit nuts taking photos.

We chose not to do any of the evening excursions, so after dinner we had a quiet drink in the lounge. Warwick joined us for a while and we had a nice chat, before heading off to bed for an early night.

Thursday – St Petersburg

After another early breakfast, we went on another optional excursion, this time to the town of Pushkin. It used to be the main out-of-town residence of the Russian Emperors and is home to Catherine’s Palace, boasting a magnificent façade and luxuriously decorated halls. We also had a brief stroll along the park embellished with fine sculptures and romantic pavilions. The gardens has its own lake (called a pond) and in one of the buildings next to the water was another concert. Unfortunately we went in at the same time as a German group so the men singing spoke to them in German. The music was stunning, but I had not idea who they were or what they had just sung.

Lunch was back on the ship, and afterwards we went to the Hermitage, which took forever to get to because of the awful traffic situation. It was once the winter palace, but now hosts a collection of more than three million works of art and artefacts of world culture. Our guide was very good at avoiding crowds, so we were able to enjoy the Hermitage and take our time to look at the things she was pointing out to us. There were several places where Adrian and I were just as impressed with the ceiling as we were with the artwork in that particular room. It is a bit like the Louvre in Paris – you could spend a few hours sampling a selection of items, or you could spend years there. We were quite late getting back to the ship, again because of the traffic, so by the time we had dinner it was time to go to bed.

Friday – St Petersburg

We got a bit of a sleep-in this morning before our excursion to the Peterhof, where the attraction was the gardens more so than the palace. In fact, the whole of our time was spent in the lower garden. We arrived just before 11am, in time to see them turn on all the fountains, which was quite a sight. Adrian said that the main ‘wow factor’ of the gardens was that there are no pipes used. I quite liked all the trick fountains that Peter the Great had installed, for example there was a particular bench that when visitors tried to sit on, jets of water came up from the stones in front of it. There were several of these trick fountains around the gardens, which I found quite unusual for an Emperor of that time. But hey, each to their own, I’d just hate to have been one of his visitors. One of the highlights for me was when we walked down a little path and saw some people feeding the birds and squirrels. The only squirrels we’ve ever seen disappear as soon as you even get close, but these ones we letting us come right up to the tree. I even managed to get one to eat out of my hand – what an experience! And yes, Mum, I washed my hands straight after!

After lunch Adrian wasn’t feeling very well so I went on the optional excursion myself, which was a River and Canal cruise. We had been on the bus for well over an hour and a half, when our guide made the executive decision to get off and go the rest of the way using the metro underground. It was the best decision we’d heard all day. You could tell why they didn’t do that all the time though, coz it was quite stressful making sure we had all the group with us. We popped up a few minutes walk from the boat we were getting on, which took us for a tour around the rivers and canals for about 50 minutes. Although we had already seen many of the attractions, it was nice to see them from a different perspective. I sat with Janet and Juris and we were absolutely freezing. In the end Janet went downstairs into the covered area, but I didn’t want to miss anything, lol. I soon warmed up once we were back on the bus. Inevitably, we were late back to our ship, so after dinner we went back to our rooms to pack. We then went to Janet and Juris’ room to say goodbye to them and then it was time for bed.

Saturday – travelling home

On Saturday we had to be out of our rooms by 9am, with our suitcases outside in the hallway. Our transfer wasn’t until 1.45pm so we had to twiddle our thumbs for several hours. We chatted to a few people for a while, said goodbye to people as they were leaving, and then killed time by playing games on our phone, walking around the ship and eating lunch. We had ordered ‘lunch boxes’ for lunch and they were quite good. We had a plain bread roll and one with meat, salad and cheese on it. We also had an apple, yoghurt, muesli bar, cake, fruit poppa and bottle of water. Not bad for £7 each.

Our mini bus took us to the airport, we checked in (got exit row seats!), found somewhere with free Internet and waited for our flight to leave. Our usual taxi service picked us up from Heathrow and we were back home by about 6.30pm. We unpacked, had some toast and went to bed.

Russia Part 1

2010-09-01T05:46:11-07:00

Posted by Janet.

Tuesday – Moscow

We spent most of the day on Tuesday travelling. We had a fairly early flight in the morning, and with the flight taking close to 4 hours and Russia being 3 hours ahead, we didn’t arrive until early evening. We had a transfer waiting for us and there was a group of us in the same minibus that took us to the ship – MS Chernyshevsky. We had a quick look in our rooms, had our bags delivered, and then went to the Conference Room for a meeting about the optional excursions that were available in Moscow. This was where we met our group leaders, Masha and Stas (pronounced Marcia and Starz). When our big group split into 2 for the excursions, we were with Stas. It was his first cruise, but his English was excellent and once you got him talking he was a lot of fun. In our big group there were several Australians, as well as a few from the UK, New Zealand, Canada and a group of 8 friends from Holland. It turned out to be a great group and we all had lots of fun together.

We then had dinner, which for us was in the Volga Restaurant each day. We asked 2 elderly ladies (Faye and Jeanie, who both live near Sydney) if we could join them and soon after that a lovely couple from New York (Robert and Richard) came to sit with us. We got along really well with them, so continued sitting with them for lunch and dinner, until we were informed that we had to stay in those exact seats. This was so we could choose (from the options provided) each course for lunch and dinner the following day. Each lunch was 4 courses – salad type appetizer, some sort of soup, main and dessert. Each dinner was 3 courses – the same but without the soup. Breakfast each morning was buffet.

The food each day was very fresh and tasty and presented very nicely. I could’ve taken a photo of almost every meal – the detail was stunning. One of the salads had a piece of tomato sitting on top of a boiled egg, with dots of mayonnaise, making it look like a toadstool – incredible!

Wednesday – Moscow

After an early breakfast we got on the buses for our City Tour. The main attractions were the Cathedral of St Basil on Red Square and the Kremlin. The Moscow Kremlin is a historic fortified complex at the very heart of Moscow, and includes four palaces, four cathedrals and the enclosing Kremlin Wall and Kremlin towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of Russia. The irregular triangle of the Kremlin Wall (built from 1485 to 1495) encloses an area of 275,000 square metres.

We had lunch at the Golden Ring Hotel, which was very nice, and we then continued our tour, arriving back at the ship late afternoon. Adrian and I had booked to go to the Moscow State Circus, but it was cancelled as not enough people wanted to go. That meant that after dinner we had the evening to ourselves.

Thursday – Moscow

On Thursday morning we went on an optional excursion to Sergiev Posad, one of Russia’s most important monasteries to which even the Tsars though it honourable to make a pilgrimage on foot. It is still an operational monastery, so we were able to experience the Russian culture first-hand, going into several of the cathedrals while there were services and dedications occurring. It was here, at the markets, that I bought my lovely pashmina (there’ll be photos of it I’m sure).

Lunch was back on the ship and in the early evening we set sail for Uglich (312 km, 7 locks). There was a Captain’s welcome cocktail, which we skipped, and then dinner. After dinner we went to the concert called ‘Let’s get Acquainted’ where we were introduced to the singers, button accordion player and dancers, who were all very good. We then spent the evening on the deck watching as we went through a couple of locks, explaining it to our new friends Janet and Juris (pronounced Yuri) and Ian and Lana. I had seen many boats passing through locks, but had never actually been on the boat myself, so it was quite an experience, especially when some of the locks were quite tight. We were told that one lock in particular was only 0.5m wider than the boat – the Captain was specifically requested to be in control during that time. It was lovely to stay out on deck talking and laughing and getting to know people better, so we didn’t mind that it was a late night.

Friday – Uglich

After breakfast, we had a quiet morning until the safety drill at 12.30. We had to put on our life jackets (which was easier said than done) and wait outside our cabin. Once everyone had been checked, we were ‘dismissed’ and it was time for lunch. After lunch was our first Russian language lesson, run mostly by Masha. We arrived at Uglich at 4.30 and then started our excursion, which was a walking tour to the Church of St Dmitry on the Blood and the Kremlin. Dmitry was Ivan the Terrible’s grandson and was murdered by the Tsar’s advisor, Boris Godunov, so that he couldn’t be heir to the throne. The ‘official’ story is that Dmitry fell and cut his neck on a knife during an epileptic fit – yeah right!

While in one of the cathedrals, a group of male singers called Ark, sang 2 songs for us. The first was a sacred song called Our Lord God, and the second was a folk song called Volga Boatmen – apparently quite well known. It was so nice to be surprised with this little concert and of course to hear a group sing a cappella in a cathedral was amazing.

We had some free time after the tour, so we found a little supermarket to stock up on biscuits, toothpaste (we didn’t forget, just didn’t realise quite how empty our travel one was) and tissues. We then wandered through the markets and only bought 2 things – a matryoshka doll keyring and a Russian ornament for our Christmas tree. A matryoshka doll is what everyone would know as a babushka doll – where each doll has another smaller one inside. The word babushka means grandmother, whereas the word matryoshka means fair lady or woman – that is why they are actually called matryoshka dolls. This was something they wanted us to clear up with our family and friends, as it is a common mistake, so there you go.

We were all back onboard by 8pm so that we could set sale for Yaroslavl (370 km). After dinner there was a folk music concert, which again was lots of fun. They taught us traditional Russian kissing games and there was lots of screaming and laughing for the whole night!

Saturday – Yaroslavl

After an early breakfast, we started our city sightseeing excursion in Yaroslavl. This was the only place where we didn’t really like our guide, but it was still a nice morning. He took us to a few churches, walked along the river, to a museum and then to the Governor’s palace. At the Governor’s palace there was a young girl dressed as the Governor’s daughter, who took us for a tour of her ‘father’s palace’. She played the part very well and at the end of the tour there was a chamber concert (piano, violin, cello) with dancing and champagne. After that we had free time in the city, but since we had seen just about everything and were cold, we went into a cute little café for a hot drink. I, of course, had a hot chocolate and Adrian had a cappuccino. It was the best hot chocolate I’d had in a long time, and was to be the only hot chocolate I would have in Russia.

We were all onboard by midday and the ship then left for Goritsy (250 km, 2 locks). After lunch we had a lazy afternoon and then went to out second Russian language lesson. The theme for dinner tonight was Ukrainian, so all the staff were dressed up. We were very impressed by the dessert, which was honey cake. On top of the cake they had made a little bee out of cream and sauce, using broken bits of wafer for the wings. On the plate beside the cake they had sprinkled cocoa powder in the shape of a beehive – very clever! The concert was ‘Rhythms of the world’ which as usual was lots of fun.

Sunday – Goritsy

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we joined one of the other groups for a Russian history lecture. The lady giving the lecture seemed to have worked for all sorts of people so she knew her stuff. She spoke to us for an hour and half, and then continued for another hour and a half on Monday morning.

We had an early lunch so that we could go on our excursion to Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (the monastery of St Cyril of the white lake). Today the monastery serves as a museum but some of the buildings have been returned to the Church and a few monks have begun to take up residence. The tour took us into one of the churches and then down to the lake, where the water is believed to make you look 10 years younger. As we were already the youngest on the ship (by about 30 years) we decided not to try it. We popped into another little building where we had another little concert from 4 male singers called ‘White Lake’. Our final stop was a museum with lots of icons. Icons are painted on wood and then hung in the church, whereas frescos are painted directly onto the walls.

In the afternoon we left for Kizhi Island (374 km, 6 locks). Back on the ship, we learnt some Russian national songs and then relaxed in one of the lounges for a while. We ended up having a bit of a sing-along with the Aussies and the Dutch, which was a lot of fun. Then it was time for dinner and the theme for tonight was Pirate dinner! Juris provided us with the most entertainment. He’d used the eye mask from the plane as an eye patch, tied one of Janet’s scarves around his head and had a few too many vodkas earlier in the afternoon at the vodka party!! As you walked into the restaurant the staff were sitting in two rows on the floor, pretending to pinch our jewellery etc and making us look ‘messy’. They were tying people’s shoelaces together, folder up one trouser leg, putting the hood of their jumper on, doing all sorts. Then at the end of the line they made you skull a shot of vodka before they would let you through. When we got to our table we realised that all our cutlery was there, but it had all been moved around, some of the glasses were on their side, napkins were on the floor – it was a huge mess. We had o much fun laughing at everyone, but mostly Juris. I don’t actually think he was that drunk, just playing up on it, but thanks for the entertainment Juris – you’re tops!!

After dinner we retreated to the lounge and Janet and Juris joined us for a nice evening drink, where we got to know them better and Juris told us the story of how his family came to be in Australia, having come from Latvia. It was a great evening.

Photos

2010-08-14T02:32:48-07:00

Posted by Janet.

All the photos are now on the website in 3 categories – Aussie Stuff, Sarina August 2010 and Family August 2010. Hope you enjoy them

Back in the UK

2010-08-13T03:51:25-07:00

Posted by Janet.

We arrived home early this morning after the long journey from Brisbane to London, via Singapore. The past two and a half weeks have been thoroughly enjoyable, spending precious time with family and friends. Adrian really enjoyed seeing his family in Townsville last weekend, and at the same time I loved seeing Nan, Aunty Maria and Uncle Dennis in Leeton. On the road trip from Canberra airport to Aunty Maria’s house I took photos of any interesting signs I could. Speaking of photos, I will be putting some up shortly, most likely in different categories. I’m just waiting on a few of my favourites from Katharine and Steve’s camera (that somehow didn’t make it onto our laptop with all the others) but otherwise they’re all ready to go.

It was also really nice to spend some time with Fran and Sarina (our Goddaughter) now that she is walking and talking – a big change to when I was visiting her as a 2-week-old baby.

Thanks to everyone back home for making us feel so welcome and loved, as always. It was hard to leave, but we’ll be back and visitors are always welcome

For those of you in the UK, we are heading off to Russia on Tuesday, so probably won’t get a chance to catch up with many of you. Hopefully you can all make it to my Birthday party though, so we’ll look forward to seeing you then.

Take care and lots of love from us both xoxo

Update from Oz

2010-08-01T16:30:07-07:00

Posted by Janet.

Just a quick update to let you all know that we have been in Brisbane for a week now and are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We’ve caught up with family and friends, spent time with our Goddaughter, been shopping for new shoes and found Pimms in the local bottle shop.

We’ve taken some photos to show our English friends what houses look like over here, as well as the obligatory family shot (now that we’re all together), but we’ll wait a bit before putting them on here.

We have a very hectic social calendar this week, the highlight of which will be our trips away this weekend – Adrian up north to see his family and me down south to see my Nan and Aunty Maria.

Hope you are all well. We are still checking emails daily so feel free to drop us a line xoxo

Another Year of Teaching Under my Belt

2010-07-23T02:32:40-07:00

Posted by Janet.

Two Sundays ago (after buying Adrian’s digital piano on the Saturday) we had a picnic lunch with John and Terry at Cliveden. We had a lovely afternoon lazing on the grass by the river, and then going for a bit of a walk. On the Tuesday night it was Jo’s leaving do. Jo has been at The Piggott School for several years, but I got to know her more this year as a Year 7 tutor, and especially on the French trip. A group of us (including Adrian) went to Las Iguanas in Reading and had tapas, cocktails and lots of fun! The Wednesday was homegroup as usual and then Thursday evening was the KS3 Celebration Evening at school. I went to support the students, especially one of the boys from my tutor group who was receiving a special effort award for his improvement throughout the year. A few of us went for a drink afterwards, but had an early night ready for Friday …..

Friday night was the school Summer social, held at The Great House in Sonning again. This year was a BBQ except it wasn’t the best weather, so most people sat inside. It wasn’t long before we were up on the dance floor, and like always we had a great time dancing the night away. It was Toby’s last social so we had several dances together, including the last song for the evening – “I’ve had the time of my life”. There was all sorts of shenanigans throughout the night, mostly fuelled by other people having too much to drink, but all in all it was a good night.

The weekend was another busy one. On Saturday I went to Biggs’ leaving do, which was a picnic in Reading. I got there at about 1pm and people came and went throughout the afternoon, with everyone finally packing up around 5ish. We mostly just sat and talked, but also played frisbie and rounders. Then on the Sunday we had lunch at Wanda and Alan’s place, which is always nice. We went for a walk for about an hour, up through the fields. Their house is in one of those areas where you are surrounded by houses but after a 5 minute walk you are surrounded by fields and nature – so English. I was singing at church, so Adrian dropped Alan and I off early for practice. The other singer never showed, so I was on my own. That was ok until Matthew announced that we were doing the first verse of one of the songs without the congregation, as it hadn’t been sung in a service for a while. That meant I was doing a solo! I used to sing solo all the time, but it had been so long that I started to get a bit nervous. I ended up missing one of the notes due to nerves, but then I relaxed into it and was fine. I got several compliments at the end, mostly to do with how brave I was for being up there on my own. I got the taste for it, so now I want to do it more often ….. Toby and I might be singing at a friend’s daughter’s wedding, but that’s not a definite yet ….

The last few days of school were, of course, very busy. After school on Monday we had afternoon tea in the quadrangle to say goodbye to all the staff who were leaving. The weather was great and by the time we got through all the people leaving and retiring, it was about 4.30pm. I raced home, put something easy on for dinner, and we then met Hilary and Andy at The Crooked Billet for a drink. It had been ages since we’d last seen them and we obviously won’t get to see them over the Summer, so Monday night was our only window of opportunity. Then on Tuesday night we had dinner with Toby and Dave, which killed two birds with one stone. It was Dave’s Birthday, but it was also a chance to give Toby his leaving present. After dinner, we came back to our place and had a little sing-along with the piano. We both did well – no tears!

Wednesday was the last day of school so we had whole school assembly, two shortened lessons, tutor time and then achievement assembly. School finished at 1pm so we loaded all our goodies (from staff and students) into the car and headed off to the local pub for lunch. We joined several tables together and had a great end of year meal together. I only got a bit teary after I said goodbye to Toby at the car. Toby is a very good friend, and I know we will keep in touch, but I will miss seeing him every day at school …..

A few people went out for drinks in the evening, but I had a quiet night in with Adrian. Yesterday morning I went to Lucy’s place to catch up with her and bubby Evan (who is now 5 and a half months old). I had lots of cuddles with the most gorgeous baby I think I’ve ever seen and it was also really nice to hear all of Lucy’s news and fill her in on the staff gossip. After lunch I went to Melissa’s new house in Bourne End. We had afternoon tea in her gorgeous garden and then went for a walk down to the river, through the Marina and back up through town. Melissa’s new house is lovely and it was nice for her to show it off to someone.

Since then we’ve just been packing and getting organised for our flight tonight. We can’t wait to see everyone!! We’ll keep in touch via e-mail and the blog. Take care xoxo

Lack of Sleep Week

2010-07-10T09:01:02-07:00

Posted by Janet.

After getting back to school at midnight on Monday night (having had 15 hours of sleep across the previous 4 nights) we had an inset day at school on Tuesday, which means that there are no students. I arrived at school to find out that there had been a burst pipe which flooded our terrapin. There wasn’t too much damage, but the carpets were still wet and the furniture had all been moved. Some of our work/folders were ruined, but it was more a case of sorting everything out. Lisa told me to spend the time sorting through my folders to give to Adam next year, so I took them all over to the other terrapin to keep Jess company. We had a whole staff session before lunch and then the rest of the day was ours. I came home, had dinner, unpacked, sorted a few things out and went to bed fairly early.

I also found out on Tuesday that Dell Harbourne (my word processing teacher from MBC) had passed away on Monday. She had cancer, was in remission, but then fell ill with pneumonia and didn’t pull through. It was such a shock to hear that and I was devastated that I couldn’t be at the funeral on Friday. Dell was my teacher for a couple of years and I also worked with her during my internship, so I have very fond memories, mostly of her big smile and funny little phrases

It was our wedding anniversary on Wednesday – 3 whole years since we exchanged vows on that beautiful Winter’s day in Brisbane. It has been another big year for us, but the most important thing is that we still love each other dearly, and I count my blessings every day that I have Adrian in my life. We went to the Riverside Brasserie, in Bray, for the 3rd year in a row, hoping this year to get to sit outside. It was raining in the morning, but cleared up in the evening, so it was 3rd time lucky. The meal was lovely and the setting by the river was very peaceful.

Then on Thursday night we went out for Toby’s leaving dinner. Halina organised most of it, so Adrian and I picked her up and we made up a Toby quiz on the way. There were about 16 of us there for dinner and we had a lot of fun, laughing and joking like usual.

Last night I went back to school for the end of Year 7 party. It started with all sorts of activities on the field, including football and rounders (like a simplified version of softball) and then ended with a disco – yes, that means I (and some of the other staff) have been to 3 discos in less than a week!! It was another good night where the staff were able to let their hair down and dance like idiots with the kids. I have photos to prove it, but unfortunately they all have students in it except the one below.

This morning, after sleeping in till 11am to catch up on sleep, Adrian and I went to Maidenhead and then Reading to look at digital pianos for Adrian’s Birthday. We came home and bought one online – a Roland RP201 – so Adrian is a very happy boy

There is only a week and a half left of school here and we have about 5 or 6 events between now and then, mostly social outings, so you’ll no doubt hear from me again before we come home