Travel Itinerary for next 3 months.

Dec 1 fly to UK via Byo and Jo’burg

Dec 2 travel to Chester for 2 nights with Alex, Michelle and baby Jessica

Dec 4 travel to Newtown for 1 night with Andy’s mum 

Dec 5 travel to Cardiff for 2 nights staying with David’s auntie and visiting Jon and family

Dec 7 travel to Heathrow, bound for Sydney

Dec 9-12 staying with Tom and Vanessa

Dec 12-19 flying to Melbourne to stay with Roy and Janet

Dec 19 return flight to Sydney for 2 nights before our Christmas extravaganza, organised and described below by Vanessa:- 

Monday 21st December –
We all fly from Sydney to Hamilton Island – This was the only direct flight to the Whitsunday’s. 

Monday 21st December –
Boat Transfer from Hamilton Island to mainland and includes a ride to our apartment! 

 
Tuesday 22nd December – Thursday 24th December –
Tall ships trip in Whitsunday’s!!
Thursday 24th December – Saturday 26th December –
Stay in Airlie/ mainland back at apartment as above and enjoy Christmas!  
 

Saturday 26th December –
Transfer back to Hamilton Island as above.
 
Saturday 26th December –
Fly from Hamilton Island to Sydney! 

Dec 27- Jan 2 recovering in Sydney and seeing in the New Year amidst the traditional firework display viewed from the Botanical Gardens.

Jan 2 fly to Rotorua, New Zealand to visit friends; John and family near Napier and possibly Kevin and Jo in Auckland.

Jan 19 return to Sydney

Jan 21 back to Heathrow

Jan 21-31+/- staying in Wales with family. David may make a visit to Costa Blanca?? 

Then finally, we will expect to return to Zimbabwe in the first week of February.

Had another Anggugu Mommy meet at Sunway Pyramid this afternoon.

A mommy + family came from Penang!

Usual activities – eat & chat, eat & chat and eat & chat!

Und es ist wie jedes Jahr – erst hat man sich drauf gefreut, aber dann kommt die Weihnachtszeit doch wieder viel zu früh; auch die im Sommer vielleicht schon gekauften Geschenke sind entweder schon verschenkt oder zu wenig oder nicht mehr so toll oder einfach weg, so dass man jedenfalls doch wieder durch die Läden ziehen muss und natürlich auch nicht am Weihnachtsmarkt vorbei kommt, dessen Glühwein-, Würstchen- und Mandelbuden einem so nebenbei das Geld für die Geschenke aus der Tache ziehen, so dass man in jedem Fall noch mal los muss bei überhaupt nicht vorweihnachtlichem Wetter, denn Schnee gab’s ja schon im Oktober oder Anfang November und kommt erfahrungsgemäß erst nach Weihnachten wieder…; auf Arbeit versucht man im Akkord Zeit zu schinden für den privaten Stress (Dekorieren, Plätzchen backen, Geschenke verpacken, Feiertagsplanen usw.) und die fast täglich anfallenden Weihnachtsfeiern und immer hofft man auf Ruhe und Frieden, aber nur die wenigsten finden ihn… – und wenn, dann ist auch schon die Weihnachtszeit wieder vorbei und man kann sich, wenn man nichts anderes vorhat, schom mal auf Ostern freuen…
Na gut, bis dahin ist es ja noch ein Stück – viel Spaß im Vorweihnachtsstress!!

1. Advent

In my family, we make Christmas lists. They aren’t always honored, but they’re exceptionally helpful for a family in which three people bike and one can’t tell a Schwinn from a Bianchi, in which two read obsessively and two are lucky to find one book a year that holds their interest, and in which three eat dairy, one(ish) eats meat, and one eats none of the above.

I was the first to send out my list, although I have a sneaking suspicion that the tiniest sprinter has been working on his for awhile and is just waiting for the key time to distribute it – possibly after he next falls off his bicycle or talks about his migrating facial implants and we all feel bad for him. I wasn’t going to publish mine here because I thought there would be nothing interesting about it – and then I realized, I’m a blogger. I talk about uninteresting shit every single day (especially during NaBloPoMo) so there is really no valid reason to stop now.

So, here’s what I requested from my family.

1) A sewing machine. As I may have mentioned a bagizilllion times, I’m not the world’s tallest girl. That goes with me not having the longest arms and legs, and normal length shirts being long enough that they can’t be comfortably tucked in. Hence, I would like to become my own tailor. I realize that I could just hire a tailor, but that would reduce the chances of me discovering that fashion design is my calling and winning the next season of Project Runway (even though it’s lame now).

That could totally be my head on Heidi Samuel's pin.

2) A salt bowl. Preferably a beautiful ones in either dark or reclaimed wood or green. I have a little white porcelain bowl that I use now, and have absolutely no reason whatsoever to get a new one… but that’s what Christmas is for, right? Getting those little things you covet that you can’t justify buying for yourself? Oh, and something about virgins and mangers…. we didn’t really focus on that part, we were more interested in early morning croissants and those chocolate oranges you have to whack on a table. If whacking chocolate doesn’t spell Christmas, I don’t know what does.

I would more appropriately salt my cooking if I had this bowl, I'm sure of it. Positive.

3) Grey’s Anatomy, starting with Season 2. No explanation needed for this one – me and Meredith are soul sisters.

4) Art, baby. This is all from Gallery Nucleus, which I discovered after the boy bought me the absolutely fantastic Use Technology to Collect the Women.

The Host by James Jean

Torotoromarillaz by Mari Inukai

Tightrope by Vera Brosgol

Unsuited by Vera Brogsol

So there you go. That’s the list I put together every year to make sure I don’t end up with strange circular gears that I don’t know what to do with. I would of course also accept baklava, Whole Foods gift cards, and love – in that order. Of course, baklava and Whole Foods gift cards are synonyms for love in some languages, right?

Another week has gone by  ….   and its Saturday once     again.   Gosh the  Thanksgiving week was hectic for me.   Got really occupied  from last Tuesday onwards and here I am … on my weekend routine.   Was such a busy week I’d say and I wasn’t feeling too well at all!

Went out late for Black Friday shopping yesterday ~ not a good idea at all!  As expected, everything cheap was gone by the time we came to the stores.    It was like almost 12hours gone by ….  People has been up before 5am and have already been waiting at the door to grab  every good deal.  Well some of the “not so popular stuff” were still available and that was it!  For the Vendors, there’s definitely lots of returns the day after … probably a popular trend of the season!   Well could have done online shopping as well, nothing is much better that seeing the items though ~ its the mindset!   Well the news said that people are still spending money, at least a way to boost the economy.

]]> http://jemiuniversity.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/old-school-camp-rock-outtakes/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:42:12 +0000 JustEnjoyMyInsanity http://jemiuniversity.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/old-school-camp-rock-outtakes/

I hope the cast had even more fun filming

Camp Rock 2:The Final Jam

Dear friend due any moment to celebrate a quiet dinner.

I really like to create and uphold traditions (enjoyable activities). I think it is a good idea to review our traditions now and then.  When our family was very young, I decided to have a close look at our family’s traditions. I looked at the things we did and why we did them. I asked ‘why are we doing this and do we want to do this?’ I did notice that most of the traditions came from my side of the family. Mainly because I am the woman and my husbands family is in another province.  I asked my husband what traditions he wanted to include in our family from his childhood.  We then worked on building our own traditions based on our values.  We ended some things and we started new things. Some of our Christmas traditions include: advent; decorating the tree; holiday baking; Christmas light sightseeing;  Operation Christmas Child and other activities. It has been wonderful creating our own traditions and seeing our girls embrace these.

When you see this, there’s no denying that it’s the back-end of the year …!

An amazing amount of corn still unharvested though;  apparently because it was such a ‘wet’ summer (being Scots, of course, I thought it was gloriously dry …).  On days like this, though, the Autumn has an amazing beauty.  The stubbled cornfields near Jan & Drake’s house (above) and their driveway (below) give a flavour.

The Angels
Author: Unknown

May angels rest beside your door,
May you hear their voices sing.
May you feel their loving care for you,
May you hear their peace bells ring.
May angels always care for you,
And not let you trip and fall,
May they bear you up on angel’s wings,
May they keep you standing tall.
May they whisper wisdom in your ear,
May they touch you when you need,
May they remove from you each trace of fear,
May they keep you from feeling greed.
May they fill you with their presence,
May they show you love untold,
May they always stand beside you
And make you ever bold.
May they teach you what you need to know
About life here and here-after.
May they fill you always with their love
And give you the gift of laughter

Photo taken by Michelle Bragg http://www.strikingshot.com

 Dedicated to a friend and her family

Our deepest sorrows

There’s a special corner in the house that I always gravitate to, first thing in the morning, to drink my morning coffee and catch the early-morning sun.  Jan – who was up earlier than me – saw the dawn, and the saw the turkeys fly down from the trees where they roost overnight … which is quite a sight to catch.

Reminded me of  the vultures in Menna & Mark’s garden in Ghana, swooping over our heads and onto the ridge-pole of the house (we were on the balcony enjoying a sundowner at the time).  Weird the leaps my mind makes sometimes.

After a day and a half of back pain, I can’t say I was honestly too excited about Pilates this morning, despite loving it.

I needn’t have worried.  Several of the exercises involve ensuring my spine is mobilised vertabrae, by vertabrae, and stretched.  During these exercises, I felt, and heard, several of my vertabrae click back into alignment.  Instant relief.

I still have some muscular pain left, but I was mobile enough this afternoon to be able to shovel more of the compost out of the driveway and into the garden.  I’m slowly making progress.

Can’t stop right now though, have to eat dinner, shower, shave, dress and get moving we’re off to a birthday party.

Have a great weekend, and Happy Birthday Al!

This truck was devastated in a wreck on Interstate 10 just east of Palm Desert

I spent a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in Palm Desert, Calif. with my dear friend Sandy, her sister Nancy, Nancy’s husband Charlie, and four of Sandy’s friends.

We ate and drank too much, toasted, celebrated, hugged each other, and pampered her two cats. Charlie played golf. I took a long stroll through the perfectly-groomed grounds. We talked by phone to many friends who couldn’t be with us.

Norman Rockwell was not there to paint the scene, but I got a lot of really great photographs. Let me know if you would like the link to the gallery.

Sandy and I had a couple of long talks. We reflected on the evolution of our shared friendships. We especially talked about preparing ourselves for “being old.” I have to put that in quotes, not being ready yet to accept it as a simple reality.

On the way home, west of the Twenty-Nine Palms exit from Interstate 10, everything came to a halt. We lined up for about an hour while two large tow trucks pulled this big rig off the freeway. The cab looked like it had been run through a category five tornado.

If I had left five minutes earlier, or not stopped at Starbucks for a latte, I would have been right behind this unfortunate fellow. It is a further reminder to be grateful for each day, and to thank the guardian angels who know which day is our day. Today wasn’t my day to leave this world, and when that day arrives, I am confident it will be the right one. The Greek myths say that the Fates know exactly how long the string of each life is. I believe that is true. I’m grateful for yesterday, and today. I’m grateful that the length of the string isn’t due to random chance. At least, that is how I see it.

Blessings on y’all. I hope your Thanksgiving was as sweet as mine.

My daughter, Shanthi, was born in New York City, and I never dreamed that she would have any direct connection with England, where I was born, except to vacation there and visit family.  But, she never ceases to surprise me – from birth onwards!!

A couple of years ago, she found out that she was eligible to apply for UK citizenship through me – I have UK citizenship through having been born in London.  A couple of months ago (the delay was largely due to my own disorganization in getting my documents to her), she was sworn in as a subject of the realm, and got her UK passport – so, she’s exploring the idea of living, temporarily or permanently, in the UK.  She is, in a few hours, going to be flying home from a week-long visit to London, mostly to visit our family there – and also to check out the job and housing scene.

She’s blogging her experience at http://shanthioverseas.blogspot.com

Her experience, so far, is reminding me of my own exploratory visit to London, way back in 1979 – I ultimately decided to come “home” to the US, and proceed with school and career in the way that was expected (although, even that didn’t turn out quite as straight-forward as it might have)…

I’m so glad that she had a good time, and I look forward to seeing what comes of this turn in her life – yes, in some ways I’m a little jealous of her freedom and opportunity to do things that I didn’t have a chance to do, but I’m mostly just glad that she’s forging her own path.

I think ‘extraordinary’ is probably the only safe way to describe these turkey-shaped soup bowls (which – as Tony rightly pointed out – must be a bugger to store …).

The soup therein was fabulous though, as was the rest of the Thanksgiving spread laid on by friends of Jan & Drake’s last night.  Their cat having a “me too” moment (below).  No solid food for me today …

It is always such a joy to include young children in the Christmas preparations. I like the following advent idea and have used it many times myself.

On or before December 1, put the nativity in its place without the figurines. Each day in December, allow your child/children to move the figurines (except for baby Jesus) to various spots in the home (you can set boundaries as to which rooms). The idea is that the figures are traveling closer to the nativity. On Christmas Eve, the child/children place all the figures in the nativity.  At this point, baby Jesus is placed the nativity. Christmas eve is the first time baby Jesus is visible to the child/children.  My girls moved the figures once a day about the same time each day. This is a great way to focus on the message of Christmas in the midst of Santa and toys.

Well we woke up to a very foggy, drizzly & cloudy sky on this Wednesday, 11/25/09 morning and I was so happy that I did not have to get ready for work (though my hubby did, only a 1/2 day though for him luckily)!  =)

After the hubby headed out to work, I made some breakfast for myself and read some more of my December 2009 “Health” magazine that came in the mail box on Monday.  I was so happy to finally get to eat the frosted shredded wheat I bought over the weekend.  I had some with milk and a banana.

Breakfast

My daughter and the dog woke up soon after I finished my breakfast, so I took the dog out for a very short walk as she wasn’t enjoying the “wetness” outside, than I did some blogging, made my daughter breakfast and got ready to go out for a run. 

I intended on doing a 3 mile “fast paced” run , however the weather dragged me down as it was raining when I headed out and rained the entire time I was out so I ended up getting soaked and my VERY wet cloths & shoes did not help me in trying to run fast.  I finished in about 35 minutes.  Check out my rain drenched cloths piled on the floor of my bathroom below!  =O

Of course a nice warm shower followed my “rainy run” and it felt great.  I spent the rest of the morning between the t.v. and computer, than at about 1pm I started to get hungry so I heated up the last of my chili, added some cheese & sour cream and got some torita chips for lunch.

Lunch

Dinner was early around 5pm and we had taco’s and yellow rice.

Dinner

Since dinner was so early I munched on a pear later in the evening and I also had a nice cup of hot chocolate since it was cool outside and a small bag of kettle corn that I shared with my daughter (sorry I forgot to take a picture of both).

Pear

A long movie took up the rest of our evening and we ended up hitting the sack just after 12pm.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TIP OF THE DAY!

In light of the impending holiday and all the YUMMY eating that come along with it (i.e. appetizers, drinks, main meal, deserts, left overs & the eating out with family and friends that usually follows), I have decided center my Tips for the next three (3) days around an article I read in my Health magazine called ”Eat, Drink & Lose”!

Holiday Hang-Up #1:

“I find it difficult to get all my workouts in this time of year!”

Solution:

Scale back, but stay active!  It’s OK to take a few days off if you need to.  But once you stop working out, it can be very hard to get motivated again.  So, no matter what your schedule throws at you, try to keep moving.  go for a brisk 30-minute walk, either outside (if weather permits) or on the treadmill.  For some no-fuss strength training, do 20 minutes of moves that use your own body weight for resistance, such as squats, push-ups, and lunges.  And aim for three to five cardio workouts and two strength workouts a week, but don’t stress out if you can’t fit them all in.  Just do the best you can and try to bounce back the next day, week or month if you fall behind.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So…I did it.  I kept count of my calories and managed a pretty good day that was well UNDER 1000 calories.  It was 843 to be exact.

I woke up at 5 a.m. and went for my 2-mile walk.  Melissa came with me.  We got home and while she got ready, I worked out with my weights and then made breakfast for dad.  We had omelettes made from 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg.  Added a little salt, pepper, parmesan, chipotle tabasco and melted one string cheese in each omelette.  Beside the eggs, we had leftover boneless, grilled porkchops from last night’s awesome dinner with the Castellucci duo.

Dad stuck around and watched the Macy’s parade with Kristina while Melissa and I started getting the house decorated for Christmas.  It was a nice morning.  I was happy to see my favorite Italian singer, Andrea Bocelli.  I was not happy to see Jimmy Fallon pretending to sing.

2:00 p.m. rolled around and we found ourselves eating Thanksgiving dinner.  I brought my cup measure and ounce scale.  I had exactly one cup of steamed veggies that I brought from home and weighed myself a six ounce portion of turkey.  It was very filling.  So filling, in fact, that I did not care about not eating mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, corn casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffing or pumpkin pie.  WAIT!!!  I did care about the pumpkin pie and so I indulged in a slice.  It was worth it.  My wedding ring and clothing are still loose and that’s all I have to worry about.

So I’m leaving you with two things: The top five things I’m thankful for and a Thanksgiving haiku.

The Top Five Things I’m Thankful For

5.  All of my amazing friends like Chad “Brains” Kirk, Scott “Nebraska” Porter, Geoff “Big Ones” Castellucci, Heather & Sebastian “Peanuts & Pisco” Peralta, Michelle “The Voice” Mailhot, Nela “The Ear” Silva, James “Apple Juice” Jessup, Matt “Tin Man” Greenwald and Layne “The Wizard” Stein.  There are so many more of you.  You all support me, you advise me, you make me laugh, you leave me wanting more of your company.  I’m blessed to know each of you.

4. My sister Kathy.  The day I lost my job, she called me and asked “will you try to work out if I come over and exercise with you”?  I, reluctantly, said “yes”.  That was on 9/23/09.  Here I am two months later and find my weight down 41 pounds.  Not because of a brand name diet but because she convinced me to exercise daily and just make good choices in my eating.  You’ve helped me create a routine.  It’s working this time sis!

3. My incredible family.  I’d like to name a few specifically for going above and beyond:

My Mother-In-Law, Sharon -  She watches our daughter every day while we work and we are very blessed to not have to pay for child care.

My Mom and Dad – for helping me with my school expenses and getting through those first few weeks of unemployment.  Also an extra thanks to dad for taking over for Sharon while her broken wrist healed.  He drove into town and stayed with us for the last five weeks to watch Kristina while we worked and he’s such a good grandfather.

2. My beautiful daughter, Kristina.  Daddy wants you to know that you’re wise beyond your years.  We sat together watching Beauty & the Beast yesterday.  In the beginning, Beast is scary and only seen in shadows and at that point in the movie Kristina says (as if continuing her thought) “…and I will not be scared of Beast because he is kind.”  YOU’RE TWO YEARS OLD!!! STOP TALKING LIKE AN ADULT AND STOP GROWING!!!  I love her.

1. My Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ. I was recently led back to christian fellowship because my life had gotten so far out of whack.  I was caught in a downward spiral and like always, He sustained me, He forgave me and He paid the price for my sin so I could be with Him in heaven when I leave this earth.  This is truly the greatest gift I’ll ever receive.  He even washed away the guilt over eating that slice of pumpkin pie today.

I usually don’t get into specifics on the whole “what I’m thankful for” thing each year but while I reflected on this today, I realized it was important that I share these truths.

I leave you with this holiday haiku:

Run away turkey

Steer clear of Sarah Palin

Not a real pardon

I forgot to get the things I’m thankful for in writing. Spoiler warning: mostly mushy and not particularly funny.

I’m thankful for my family: that my mom and dad are literally close by and that my brother and I are close enough that his living in Portland doesn’t stop us from being friends. I’m thankful for all the time I got to know my Grandpa and how much my Grandma still loves him, even though he’s gone. I know it’s hard for her, but I’m always going to be thankful for that kind of love when it intersects my life.

I’m thankful for the family I chose: my best friends, both furry and not, and the sweetheart that is the boy.

I’m thankful for all the silly things that make me happy: Eastwick (even though it’s cancelled), Under the Dome on audio book, and everything else that happened this year that I’ve since forgotten about.

I’m thankful for the toughness that I got from somewhere (thanks again mom and dad) that enabled me to fall down today, bang up my knees, break/strain/dislocate my thumb, and keep skating. Also, I’m thankful for roller skates, and for being in a position in my life that I can take up a sort of expensive sort of dangerous pretty hard new hobby just because I feel passionately about it.

I’m thankful for all those lovely people on the periphery of my life. Even if they never become besties, I am better and happier for knowing each one of them.

…. I think that’s all. I mean I’m thankful for lots more stuff, like 30% of sweaters at Gap and Banana tomorrow, but that doesn’t really seem Thanksgiving worthy. So yeah, that’s all.