Goings on

Chris and I have had a busy couple of weeks since the last update. Amongst many other family birthdays, both our nieces have gotten a year older. Grier is now two and Ruby turned one. Simon and Bronwyn brought her up at the weekend and they all got to meet Willo, Ruby loves her.
Willo is filling out and is keeping us fully fit. I really do love having a dog, but it does tie you down a lot more! Chris laughs when I come home after the morning walk and tell him all about the people I've met in the park and the conversations we've had... but it opens up a whole new world or dog walking!

Willo relaxing after a walk in the park

Chris has been going through more of our 18,000 photos and was asked by a colleague and good friend to give a talk to the WI. He did this and the presentation which he prepared was really good (if I may say so myself) and it bring back a lot of memories about our travels.

Chris was asking what the high and low points of our year out was... and we could think of so many high points, but low ones... we couldn't think of any and we were so lucky to be able to say that. But when asked would we do it all again... yes and no, next time I'd bring a roller case!!!!

Changes...

In my last posting I mentioned about getting a motorcycle...

Well, this is me in my father-in-law's garage, but I have been out on it but due to the really icy roads, I haven't been out
for a couple of weeks. It's a lovely Suzuki Marauder and I love it. I'm calling it Juanita!

If that wasn't enough... Chris has finally given in and allowed me to get a dog. We were going to get one as soon as we returned from our travels, but as we were going to South Africa for a couple of weeks, it wasn't very fair on the dog. So last Monday we got Willo from the dog pound and she is slowly getting used to life in the Bracken household and we're slowly getting used to her! We had her dancing in the kitchen tonight!
It was very difficult trying to pick a name for her, but from the seven we'd come up with, Willo seems to have stuck. Our Niece, Emma, wanted to call her Crispie, but that was met with a quick No!!!!

Here are a couple of pics from when I took her out for a walk at the pound... She's a lot happier now despite being spayed and being given her inoculations!

Stomp!

It's been a little while since I've put up a post and although there have been lots of different things I could have blogged about, the time has passed and so it's become irrelevant. (Me getting a motorcycle... settling back into home life...)
But not this time!

For various reasons we purchased some 'Stomp' tickets for Chris' Nephew Nathan and for my parents for it's opening performance. Chris and I had the delight of seeing it being performed just off Broadway in NYC with our couch-surfing host Barbara, so when we saw it was coming to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, we just had to go.

Despite my concern about the physical size of the building (being quite a big) the interaction of the audience was actually better than that of the small theatre we'd originally seen it in.

The opening act with the brushes was so 'hard hitting' that they broke about 5 of the 'brooms'!! It was over 90 minutes of constant entertainment and some additional moments of side splitting laughter.

Everyone who went enjoyed the performance and I was pleased that we had stayed with Barbara and her husband Matt for us to have been able to see the show in the first place to realise just how good it would be.

Chrismas Update

Since we last posted so much has happened, but we still have so much to do and so little time. In the run up to Christmas we had to try and get prepared a little earlier. Although we had only been home for 10 weeks or so, another trip back to South Africa for Auntie Carol's wedding was required. Sending Christmas cards early, buying presents early and having the house tidied and decorated.... it didn't all happen but we did try.

Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria. Chris, Jude Matthew and Ethan

We stayed in Johannesburg with my cousin Lee as a start to our holiday. Seeing as his kids Matthew and Ethan were off, we dragged them around with us to Gold Reef city, the shopping mall and in the photo, the Voortrekker Monument. Commemorating the trek of the original settlers into the African interior in the 1800's it was and interesting day of history with a few zebra, buck and Wildebeest thrown in.

Lake in the Drakensberg

To break up the drive to Durban, Lee and Mona had arranged a stop in the Drakensberg (the big mountain range in South africa). Feeling fit and energetic we tagged along to laze by the pool and on one day spent most of our time by the large open fire due to the rain. It was a great few days and what a holiday should be about - food & sun.

The view from our Hotel room. It's a touch life

Next stop, the wedding of the year. Auntie Carol moved to Durban, South Africa many years ago and it is not that often we get to meet up. Twice in one year was a suprise but any excuse to flee the cold of Northern Ireland had to be taken. The wedding was a bit different to the usual Northern Ireland affair, it started at 10:30 in the morning for one thing but a great day was had by all the it was rally nice to see Auntie Carol and now Uncle Jayson (that's going to scare him !) tie the knot. Good luck to them for the future.

Auntie Carol, Uncle Jayson, Emma and Eric

Durban is a coastal city. It has a replica of the Belfast city hall (not quite true but can't remember the whole story...), the beaches are very nice, the weather is very humid and if you leave your SatNav, DVD player and radio in your car overnight, it probably won't be there in the morning (Dad won't do that again !). One of the bigghest draws is Ushaka water park and aquarium. You simply can't come to South Africa and not take in some of the wildlife. Jude and I decided to hide from the children (big sisters and cousins) and watch some of the fish floating about. It is strange to see all the different varieties of creatures out there, I'm still suprised when i see some of it. Durban has a lot of Sharks and if you are ever in the area, either the Aquarium or the sharks board are a must see.

A Sea Turtle, Durban.... Big !

So we are back home. bags still not unpacked, not Christmas tree up, cards in a pile rather than the mantelpiece but at least we have a turkey.... must get bread for sandwiches on boxing day.... We arrived back a day late due to snow in Amsterdam closing the airport and missing our connecting flight. One night curled up on airport benches wasn't too bad but after a 13 hour flight (extended because of a need for fuel in Paris), we managed to survive OK. Jude and I are both looking forward to the time we have off over the next 2 weeks. It isn't much but we still have bags to unpack, a house to sort out and reality to get back to, 2009 has been a great year, lets hope 2010 will be just as good.

When the hammer falls....

While Chris was looking through the local paper during the week he spotted an advert for an auction... so we decided to go along and see if there were any good deals.

They had 32, 37, 40 and 46 inch tv's, Persian rugs, limited edition paintings and also lots of little bits and pieces. Let's just say that we didn't break the bank with any of our purchases... we limited it to some pieces for Christmas presents. We certainly didn't spend as much as a couple of girls in front of us whose bill reached just under £3000 or a guy who seemed to buy so many of the items, in pairs!! (I lost count at £15,000)!!!  The bidders who wanted either the tv's of bags etc.. didn't seem to realise that as there were quite a few of the same lot number, they didn't need to outbid each other as they would all get the option to buy something at a decent price. Others just didn't know when they were paying too much for an item they could buy for less in the high street stores.

Despite everything, it was good fun seeing how the auctioneer was working the room and although the items were bargains for some people, it would have been easy to get caught in the whole excitement of the event, bidding for a signed Pele shirt, or signed images of Kurt Douglas etc... but unless it's something you would want, it's not a bargain. And to be fair, I like the signed underpants we have of Matt Lucas and David Walliams which we got in a Children in Need auction, at least that money went to charity.

It would be good to go to another auction at some point, but next time we'll be better prepared, and I'll bring out my knitting!!!

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.