Scotland

After a hectic start to the year, it was amazing how quick the Easter holidays had arrived! 

We had planned an 8 day holiday touring Scotland with the Ramsays and the McLeishs. 6 adults and 4 kids - Nicole & Phil, Sonia & Alan, Michelle & Gordon, Alexander, Cameron, Bradley & Meghan. James (Alan & Sonia's 14 year old) flew over to Scotland with us and was collected by his granny at the airport. He was not in Scotland to see the sights, but more likely to eat Granny out of house and home! 

We flew on Easyjet, a 2 hour flight to Glasgow and collected our hire cars - A huge 4WD for the McLeish family (they had ordered an estate (station wagon)), a Zafira for the Ramsays and a little Peugot 407 for us! We had the most kids and the smallest car! There was enough room for our luggage and generous offers of  'space for hire' in the bigger cars if we needed it! We have learnt to pack fairly lightly for our trips.

The first night we were staying in Falkirk. We set off in a convoy from the airport and were travelling along the motorway when Alexander, who was a bit unwell from the flight, decided he needed to be sick. Luckily we rapidly reached the shoulder and he emptied the contents of his stomach outside the car, not inside. We got underway again and caught up with the others at a roadside stop, and then tried to find somewhere for dinner. 

The idea of 'fish and chips' from a local chippie appealed to all and we found a chippie on the way into town. The smell of fish and chips perked Alexander right up, and the food was so delicious! 

 

After driving around town for a while, we eventually found our hotel - it was Saturday night and there was a wedding on in the hotel's reception area. We got ourselves organised and to bed, thinking that the day was over. At about 3.00 am, the hallway outside our room became the set of a soap opera. It appears that Lorna, who got herself drunk at the wedding, was very annoyed because her significant other, Michael, had taken off with her best friend, Jackie, for a quick shag. Lorna was knocking on every door trying to find them and intervene, whilst a gaggle of female friends and relatives (all at least as drunk as Lorna) were encouraging her to come to bed, as quietly as they could, which was not very quiet at all.

Their language was appalling (they kept using the word that would describe what Michael was doing to Jackie). 

When Reception didn't respond to our calls of help to stop the raucous, Alan 'encouraged' them to finish up and please go to bed. The end of our first day in Scotland! Hilarious.

Lego Conveyor Belt

Alexander is doing amazing things with his "educational" Lego set.

This morning he made this conveyor belt, and it works really well. He can move a piece of Lego from one end of his belt to the other with the motor and wheels. Now he is playing with the wheels to see if he can make it go faster and slower.

OUCH!

A friend recommended a waxing place in Berlin. Waxing is not a popular thing to do here. My eyebrows were beginning to look like John Howard's something needed to be done. I could go to a Beautician here, and have them plucked for 20 minutes, or take 5 minutes to have them waxed. I chose the second option.

Here is the price list, (click on the photo to enlarge it),and I will let you try and work out what they mean. I don't think I will be buying Phil a gift voucher for Father's Day.

Knut the polar bear

Yesterday we were supposed to go to the Berlin zoo with Cameron's class. But it was cancelled due to bad weather. This is the now famous polar bear cub, Knut.  His mother abandoned him, and he is being hand raised at the zoo. 

(image taken from The Sydney Morning Herald.)

At the moment, Knut is not on public display, but when he is a bit older, he will start to come out for a small amount of time during the day. 

Hopefully by the time we get to the zoo with Cameron's class (after Easter), we will be able to see him too!

Giant Easter Eggs

Postdammer Platz Arcaden, always have lovely displays for different times of the year. Their Easter display is beautiful as expected! The enormous painted eggs are lined up on the second floor, and look really lovely. They are still working on them, setting them on top of grassy platforms, with small displays of Spring flowers. There were another 8-10 still wrapped in plastic, awaiting to be set up. The weather has turned cold, 1 -2 degrees in the morning, so the Winter coats came out of the closet again.  

Yesterday was the official first day of Spring, and last night we had about 3 inches of snow fall. We haven't had much snow at all this year, and when it has snowed, it has melted away in 12 hours. This year we didn't get to even make one snowman in our garden!

Legoland Berlin - coming soon

The boys get the Lego magazine, which comes out every 2 months. Alexander was beside himself when he read a large advertisement about a LegoLand Discovery Centre opening here in Berlin, at Potsdammer Platz at Easter.

Today, I went for a walk through Tiergarten with some of the mums from school, and we ended up in Potsdammer Platz.....look what I found!

It is right next to the cinemas. There were workmen fixing this giraffe into the ground, and he was really impressive! Looks like this will be somewhere to visit during the Easter school holidays. I just have to check when it has actually opened! Alexander's philosophy is "A boy can never have too much Lego"

Easter decorating

A German tradition is to decorate branches for Easter. You buy a bunch of branches from the florist or market and pop them into a vase with water.  Decorations are hung from the branches, and soon the branches will bloom with flowers. I am not sure which flowers will spring to life from these ones, so it will be a nice surprise. The shops and florists are overflowing with bundles of branches to sell. Phil says this is just another excuse for me to buy more decorations. (like my Christmas decoration obsession). So, I don't want to disappoint him, I have bought a few for the beginning of my collection I also bought some bags of plastic coloured eggs to hang on the trees outside. 

This is a tree in one of our neighbours gardens. It looks quite pretty when you walk past it. I could just imagine what our neighbours in Sydney would think if we hung these on the gum trees outside our house. I love this tradition. It's bright and colourful and I want to continue this when we go back to Australia.

Phil -BSV Rugby tour to Ireland and Scotland

I joined 21 other guys (including Alan and Gordon) for a Rugby team tour to Ireland and Scotland. It was a super (long) weekend - departing Berlin on Thursday night and returning Monday morning. 

First stop was Belfast, and a big night out. On Friday morning the team had a defensive coaching session from Ulster's defence coach (Ulster is one of the three top clubs in Irish Rubgy). Next came lunch and a few beers, before a ferry ride across to Scotland. 2 hours on the ferry and 4 1/2 by train and we landed in Edinburgh. What a great party city! 

We saw the Ireland Scotland game at Murrayfield on the Saturday, and on Sunday went to Panmure FC, near Dundee, which was Alan's old club when he was a kid. There is even a photo on the wall with him looking like a young Michael Jackson (what an afro!). The hospitality of the club was superb! 

On Monday morning, the bus arrived at 6:00 am to drive us to Glasgow airport to fly back to Berlin. It was a great trip, the guys were a great bunch and we had a super time. 

Of course, being a rugby tour, there are no photos and details.  "what goes on tour stays on tour"

Dahlem Farm

While the dads were on the rugby tour, we took the kids to Dahlem farm near Sonia's place. It was a lovely afternoon, and I think the kids enjoyed playing on the old tractor more than seeing the animals. 

Well, there were not very many animals to see, a few goats, horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and a cow. At least it was an afternoon out in the fresh air.

The highlight of the day for the boys was the seating at the Dahlem train station. They thought the boobie chair was hilarious!

The Travel show

A busy Saturday.

Open Day at school. Alexander was asked to be part of the gymnastics display. He has been doing gymnastics in PE, and as a lunchtime club. 

Cameron had a party for Mohamed, and Alexander and I set off to the travel show at the Messe Hall. 

Lots of stalls for different countries, and Alexander was excited to see many airplane companies in attendance. He was able to look at all their aeroplanes. We collected lots of postcards with the different planes on them, ate different foods, and listened to some local music. Alexander is studying Ancient Egypt for topic at the moment, and we saw this King Tut mask. He got lots of pictures of Ancient Egypt for school as well, and a bookmark made of papyrus. Below is Alexander on an Indian "taxi". After walking around for 4 hours, we met Sonia, Michelle, Bradley, Cameron and Meghan (Sonia collected Cameron from the party), for dinner at an American Diner. 

Meanwhile, Alan, Gordon and Phil are somewhere in Scotland watching a rugby match.

Cameron's Science Experiment

Cameron's topic in Science at the moment is plants. He came home all excited yesterday telling me that we had to buy a bunch of white tulips and food colouring. I had the food colouring already, so when we went to the shops later to get something for dinner, we also picked up a bunch of tulips from the florist. Luckily tulips are everywhere at the moment, and a bunch of 7 cost us a cheap 2 euros!

 

He cut the stems down on the tulips. Filled glasses with water and food colouring and added the tulips

24 hours later, this is what the tulips look like. The food colouring has worked it's way up the stem of the tulips, and changed the colour of the petal. I couldn't get a great close up of the tulips to show you how amazing they look close up. 

This was a lot of fun.

Last Winter Ice skating session

Today was the final iceskating Sunday for Winter this year. We found today a bit difficult, having been skiing the week before, we all seemed to have trouble working out where our body weight should be. After about 10 minutes it was all OK again!



Winter here, has been disappointing with hardly any snow. Phil packed my bicycle away when it first started to snow, but it melted so quickly. I will get the bike out again tomorrow, and start riding it again!.

This time of year in the past 2 years we have still had heaps of snow, and been able to make lots of snowmen in our garden. This year the snow didn't hang around long enough for us to build even a head of a snowman! The boys were keen to make a snow ramp in our garden this Winter, so they could slide down it after school, but it never happened. 

Hopefully next Winter will have better snow.

Happy Birthday Phil and Alexander

Phil turned 38 yesterday, and Alexander turned 8 today. 

We had the McLeish and the Ramsay families come for dinner and cake. Usually I make 2 cakes, one for each birthday, and enough cupcakes for Alexander's class. 

This year, with Phil away in Seefeld, I only made the 1 cake, and 24 cupcakes. Phil arrived home around 7pm, and everyone turned up not long after. After a yummy dinner of apricot chicken curry, we settled down to sing Happy Birthday, and eat this amazing Nigella Lawson chocolate cake, complete with smarties and M&M's. It is the best cake any of us have ever tasted! (Sonia wants me to try some other recipes to add to our cake list!) Alexander got some lovely birthday presents, and of course there was more Lego.

Phil in Austria

Following a week's skiing, and a day and a half at home to do all the washing, Phil headed off to a business meeting in the ski fields of Austria! As he arrived early, Phil had another day and a half skiing, which he loved. 

The resort was really quiet, and he got discounts on his ski hire and lift passes. One morning he had a whole run to himself for 1/2 an hour, before being joined by another 6 or so skiers until the ski schools came out in force at about 11:00. With fresh snow one day (and rain the next) the skiing was quite variable. The local church, covered in fresh snow. A view from the top of the mountain. Part of the ski run The meeting went well, and Phil celebrated his birthday with work colleagues (Cake and Apple Schnapps) and a big night out. 

He would have stayed for the weekend for more skiing, but Alexander's birthday was on Friday night. Phil's aim was to make it home for dinner to see Alexander on his birthday. He had never been away on one of the boy's birthdays before, and didn't want to start now!