A good old fashioned ramble...

I was walking to get the train into work this morning and managed to leave the house with enough time to actually walk the entire way rather than running like (as Chris says) a constipated donkey! (I've never seen one myself but...) It's amazing that when you take the time to look around, you can notice some lovely pieces of nature and appreciate the nicer mornings when you aren't rushing or in the car. The sun was shining through the golden leaved trees and the weather was really nice and mild. During our travels we missed the various seasons... especially Autumn and it's a fantastic time of the year. The walking through the leaves, the crisp mornings and the fog across the River Lagan. No matter where you travel, there are always pieces of home that can be prettier than anywhere else and Northern Ireland has some beautiful places.

With Grier in the park

Having cuddles while Mummy and Daddy are checking in

Chris and I have been home for just over a month and time has really flown in - yesterday was my first Sunday in the house! I have been over to Scotland to say Bon Voyage to my sister, brother in law and niece as they begin a new life in Australia... down to Roscommon twice - the last time to celebrate the Christening of my niece Ruby and becoming her godmother and in between we have been re-decorating the house!

Chris and I with Ruby at her Christening

It has been strange being home and not really needing to plan where we are going to be staying in the next few weeks or wondering where we are going to be eating dinner - which has been the norm for the past year. I'm not having itchy feet, I think it's more that there is quite a bit to be arranged around the house, getting our belongings out of the attic and generally tidying up our rucksacks etc. and I cannot be bothered!

At least we have Chris' Aunt's wedding to look forward to in Durban this December... some winter sunshine and a great chance for a family get-together.

Hopefully some fairies will enter the house and unpack everything for me so I don't have to come across spiders hidden amongst our belongings. But that's just wishful thinking!

South America - Sao Paulo - the Beginning

As I remember it wasn't that Daunting leaving for a year of travel. Excitement was still in the air and we had made our flights with plenty of time. We did have a bit of trouble with the tickets when we arrived in Heathrow - BA said we didn't have any. 5 hours waiting in terminal 5 with a very clam attitude I have to say finally helped to resolve the situation. Not to mention our great travel agent.
Quiet Time in Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo was a great starting point because is got us into big city life but gave us time to sort ourselves out. With a guidebook to find the highlights of one of the worlds biggest cities we managed to stumble into this virtually empty park and even order a hotdog from a local vendor. It still hadn't sunk in we weren't just on a holiday.

Monumento De Ipiranga

We traveled by local bus to Independence Park. It was a nice place to visit and explained a little about Brazil's independence from the rest of South America. The monument in the picture is rather big and marks the spot where Brazil declared it's independence from Portugal. Brazil is the only South American country that doesn't speak Spanish. It's not even a second language. Our problems ordering a Big Mac proved this. In Spanish a Big mac is Big mac. in Portuguese it is Big Mac.

We walked along independence park to the Paulista Museum. The views of the entire park where stunning but it doesn't explain just how vast the city of Sao Paulo actually is.

Work wasn't quite out of our minds, even with 2 weeks off. The transmitter towers, in the centre of the cities business district constantly changed colour. I wonder what would happen if they did this at Divis (our local transmitter).Before embarking on our trip to Rio, we had to get a phrase book for Portuguese. English, no matter how loud just didn't work. This bookshop just looked fantastic and even had a glass listening room for music recitals and bean bags in the children's area, it was more like a library.

We're Back !

Home Sweet Home.
To say it's good to be back isn't true in every sense. It is nice to see the family again, it's also nice to have the comfort of the same bed for the foreseeable future. Today there is even a bit of sunshine and we have a full wardrobe of clothes to choose from.... well... some of them are still hidden in bags and boxes. We haven't missed the ear piercing Belfast accent first heard in Heathrow - Wadaya mean like?

Back to work is slow this week (make the most of it while we can) but it is nice answering all the questions, telling the stories and showing the photo's. We just have to remember what stories we have told to who, don't want to bore everyone.

So what now for the Blog. I've decided that seeing as we have good Internet access, time to sit in front of a computer, with a big screen, I'm going to use the blog to remember this time last year. It will help me sort out the photo's a week at a time, recall some of the memories and share some more of our experiences which we didn't have time to write about as we went along. Comments, queries, suggestions and questions, use the comments button below or send us a mail at our usual. I will also get a link to a full photo site as when we get the photo's sorted.