Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Day 2012

We were again blessed to have our family and friends join us on Christmas Day.  It was not as joyous as other years because of the passing of Wayne's mother Coral in June and she was sadly missed by all of us, today.  However, we know she was with us in spirit and so we all did our best to celebrate the day together.

The Christmas Tree looked gorgeous, as usual!



It was great that Torie and her boyfriend Nick could join us for lunch, even though they had so many others in Nick's family to see on the day!  But, even more than that, they left their home at 8am to travel down to Phillip Island to pick up Mum and Dad and bring them to our house.  Such an amazing effort and so very much appreciated by all of us!




Wayne's dad, Geoff and his sister Debbie & hubby Phil were also there, although understandably much quieter, this year.


 


Dad went into permanent care in November, due to his Alzheimer's Disease.  So, we gave him a picture of the family to put on his bookshelf.

Mum was with us for Christmas too, but somehow I didn't manage to catch a snap of her this year!


It was lovely to have Lizzy's boyfriend Adam join us for this first time, this year!






The Christmas lunch table was a riot of food and noise, as usual.  Thanks to Wayne, with the help of Phil, we had the most wonderful Christmas feast!






Everyone had fun with the Christmas crackers and it was lovely to be able to welcome Adam's mum, Nebbie to join us today (although I didn't get a photo of her either!).



I felt it was important to acknowledge our losses, as well as our blessings during this past year, so I did a little research and came up with the following Grace, which I read out as everyone held hands, before we began to eat:


God of all gifts, we thank you for the many ways you have blessed us
and we thank you for bringing our family and
friends together on this wonderful day.
 
We are grateful for each of those who are gathered around this table
and we ask you to bless us and our food
and to bless those we love who are not with us today.
 
In our gratitude and love, we remember your humble birth into our lives
and pray for those who are without enough to eat.
 
We remember the stable in which you were born
and pray for those who have no place to live.
 
We remember your challenging message of caring and giving
and we pray for peace in families and nations throughout the world.
 
Despite the hardships of this past year,
we are grateful for the unity and grace you have bestowed upon us.  
 
As we celebrate your birth Lord,
we will remember countless blessings in our lives which we are so thankful for.
 
Let the gift of your peace come into our hearts and remain with us
and may we rejoice in your blessings for all our days.
 
Amen.



Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Farewell to Tintern Schools

I had the last day of my job at Tintern Schools today.  My role as Co-Curricular Administrator was made redundant, so I have had to finish-up after three years.  I have really enjoyed my time at Tintern and feel I have contributed well to the school.

My office at Tintern


My role was to coordinate all the co-curricular activities of the students and ensure they were all staffed and administered properly and then to create the students' Co-Curricular Reports twice a year.






I was also required to organise all the overseas and interstate trips and tours for the school, which included UK/Paris, China and Central Australia.

It was a very busy job, but I still found time and energy to be part of the Staff Association Committee, run a Well Being Club for the middle school students, Yoga Sessions for the staff, a Glee Club and lunchtime Meditation Sessions for the senior school students.

The Tiwi girls, their elders and me
at the MCG on their last night in Melbourne
One of my most satisfying projects in 2011 was to arrange for a hosted one-week visit to Melbourne by ten students from the Tiwi Islands, along with their teachers and elders.  The girls were quite shy and anxious at the beginning of the week, but by the end they were really enjoying their time here and there were some wonderful relationships developed.


It is sad to be leaving Tintern, but I see it as just another very enjoyable chapter in my life and am ready to turn the page and see what comes in the next one.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Vocal Vibes Christmas Concert

The Vocal Vibes Chorus had another wonderful Family & Friends Christmas Concert this evening.  It was such a lovely time of celebration and song with all of us in the Chorus dressed up in our best Chrismassy clothes


There was quite a large audience gathered and we sang a number of songs from our repertoire, including Ain't Misbehavin', One Fine Day, The Moment I Saw Your Eyes and Candle on the Water.


It was lovely to have so many of my family and friends there!

Torie, Richie and Nebbie (Adam's mum)
Lizzy & Nick
Richie & Nebbie again, this time with Adam
All the kids together ... so happy!
Ayden, Lea, Les and ....
... Bailea!










I cannot put into words how much enjoyment I get from singing with this lovely bunch of women, but perhaps this photo gives some indication ....




Then Santa arrived and gave gifts to all the children.






Wendy handed out musical instruments (tamborines & bells) to the children ...






... and we all sang Christmas carols, lead by Maddie ...




There were such a lot of children there, even a young boy dressed up as an elf!





This little one's gift was bigger than he was!





Faye received the inaugural Brenda Smith Achievement Award (and well deserved, too!).





Then we "sang-in" our newest member, Sophia (our form of induction) with the Sweet Adelines anthem How We Sang Tonight.


Then, after a couple more songs, including An Irish Blessing, it was time for a lovely Christmas supper before we all went home.  Such a wonderful way to end the year with my lovely Vocal Vibes!!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Italian Holiday :: Day 8 :: Naples (Cruise)

This morning, we had a lovely lazy sleep-in with breakfast in bed.  We had ordered our Australian newspaper to be delivered each morning, when we first arrived on board, although for some reason we couldn't get the Herald Sun, only The Age.  So, we sat in bed eating croissants and drinking cuppas whilst catching up on a bit of news from home.

At 11:15, the ship docked in Naples and we met Shane & Zoe in the Sports Bar, where we joined about ten other people to go on a bus trip through Naples, past Mt Vesuvius to Pompeii and then to Sorrento.

Shane is on the right and Zoe next to him, talking with our guide.
Pompeii was amazing!  A whole city of 20,000 which was covered by a 5m layer of ash in one day when the Mt Vesuvius volcano erupted in 79AD.  Most of the inhabitants had a day's warning and evacuated, but some chose not to for some reason and about 2,000 were killed by the toxic cloud in 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, before they were covered in the ash.

The archeologists who uncovered the city were able to recover the bodies by filling the cavity where the ash had hardened around them with liquid plaster and making a mold of their shape.




There were models of a man ...
Thus, rather than remains of skeletons, there are models of the full bodies of the victims on display.

... a pregnant woman ...
... and a young boy (approximately 16 yo),
who died in a fetal position with
his hands covering his nose and mouth.
 




















... the temple of Apollo, the Greek god of the sun and music,
where there is a sun dial (on top of the white pillar) ...
We also saw lots of different buildings of this ancient city, which has been preserved by the layer of ash over the centuries ...


... some of the streets were for one-way traffic only as they were
not wide enough to handle two chariots and the direction
of traffic was indicated by a picture of a goat on the wall,
with its head pointing which way to drive ...
... a bath house with rooms for cool, warm and hot baths,
which the patrons would process through in order,
and then return to the cool bath before leaving ...















... a bakery with oven and flour mills ...
... water fountains in the streets with
different pictures on them, to help
the inhabitants locate themselves
in the city (I think the tap may have
been added later!) ...

... and a brothel with a sign of a penis.






After a couple of hours of winding through this fantastic archeological site, we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and met with a lovely couple of ladies on our tour - Brenda & Mary - who were from the Isle of Man, near England.  They were able to tell us all about the major motorcycle grand prix which is held every May on their island, which was extremely interesting, especially for Shane & Wayne.  They, and many other residents on the island, let their homes as B&Bs to guests during the time, as there are over 20,000 visitors during the two weeks of the race.



After lunch, we reboarded our bus and travelled to the seaside town of Sorrento, where we had an hour or so of free time to explore and shop.







Zoe & I bought some gorgeous leather bags, and we saw some beautiful inlaid wood pieces, clocks, tables, musical boxes and much more.  We looked through clothes shops and ate delicious ice cream cones and had a really fun time.


Just after 5:00pm, we gathered again and climbed on the bus for our trip back to the ship.  I had a light tea in the Yacht Club buffet, while Wayne and I checked our emails and uploaded our photos to the computer, then we met Zoe & Shane for a drink in the Manhattan Bar for a drink.



At 9:00, I went off to bed while the others went to dinner.  I was way too exhausted for that!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Italian Holiday :: Day 7 :: Genoa (Cruise)

The alarm sounded at 3:30am as planned and I showered first.  We finished off the crisp breads, cheese and fruit that we had in our fridge and then finalised the packing of our cases.  The porter arrived on time at 4:30 and we made our way down to the car.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel had packed a breakfast to take with us - beautiful fresh chocolate croissants, little bottles of pear juice, yoghurt and fruit.  What a nice touch!!  We have been so very happy with our stay at the Villa Belvedere and would easily recommend it to anyone wishing to holiday in Taormina!

We took the motorway south to Catania airport and arrived just before 5:30, dropped the car off in the car hire park and checked-in for our 7:00am flight to Rome.  It was disappointing to discover that, although the combined weight of my suitcase and toiletries bag was well under the required 23kg, there was a charge for having more than one piece of luggage.  We hadn't expected this as, in Australia and on the Emirates flights through Singapore and Dubai, it didn't matter how many pieces we had, so long as they didn't exceed the weight limit.  We were charged €63 (about $80) for that little bag and I has very upset about that, as the zip had broken the night before and I had fiddled with it for a long while before I could shut it.  During the "fiddling" we had discussed whether or not to bother taking it and to just pack everything into the suitcase and throw the toiletries bag out (it was about five years old and had seen a lot of duty!).  Now, of course, I wish we had done that!

The flight to Rome was a quick one, about one hour, and there was a brief transfer onto the next flight at 9:30am to Genoa.  We landed, collected our luggage and took a taxi through Genoa to the port, where our beautiful cruise liner awaited us.


A couple of days ago, Wayne had received an email from MSC, the cruise company, to say that we had received an upgrade and when we arrived, we were delighted to find that we were now members of the exclusive first class "Yacht Club"!


We were attended to by a young man who introduced himself to us as his "butler" and we were whisked past the long queues of guests waiting to embark and up to a special lounge where we were served champaign and hors d'oeuvres whilst our butler dealt with all the details of checking-in for us.

Then, we were escorted up to the fifteenth floor at the front of the ship, to an exclusive place only for Yacht Club members and shown to our cabin.






It was very beautiful with a lovely balcony and there was a platter of fruit and a bottle of champaign awaiting us.







Our butler gave us a quick tour of the Yacht Club area, including our own exclusive restaurant and pool, which had not one, but TWO jacuzzis, and then he bade farewell and we were left to settle-in.




After we had unpacked, we went back up to the pool, where there was a bar which catered for lunch and we stayed there for an hour or so, chatting with a German couple called Klaus and Heidi.




They were veterans of the cruise world, this being their 79th cruise!!  They had begun cruising about ten years ago and admitted to being addicted to it.  They took on average 8-10 cruises a year!   As we chatted, we discovered that he was a doctor who owned six different GP clinics in Germany.


There were many different bars ...
After lunch, I went back to the cabin for a little nap and Wayne went exploring the ship.






... and lounges ...













... and bars ...



... and lounges.


We had been advised when we were embarking that there would be an emergency drill for everyone on the ship just after 4:00pm, so we were ready in the cabin with our life jackets for that.


We had to go down to the 7th floor to our Assembly Point, where we had to hand-in a little card to prove we had attended the drill and we were shown how to put on our life jackets.



Then everyone could return to whatever they were doing beforehand.  We took our life jackets back to the cabin and then went to find our good friends Shane & Zoe, who had initiated our whole trip by inviting us to join them on this cruise, way back last year.

Shane & Zoe left Melbourne earlier than us, in early September and had already travelled through Greece, Turkey and Croatia on various tours, ending up with a cruise of the Greek Isles and eastern Italy, disembarking this morning in Venice.  It was the same cruise company (MSC) that we were taking this cruise with and they provided them (and some other guests) with a connecting bus from Venice, across the top of Italy to Genoa (which was a 5-1/2 hour winding ride through the alps) and they arrived at about 3:30, just in time for the emergency drill.

So, when we knocked on their cabin door, they were still unpacking their cases and settling into their cabin.  We went together down to the buffet on the 6th floor to have some late lunch and drinks and to chat about our travels over the past week(s).  Zoe & Shane had not been as fortunate as us and had not received the same upgrade, which was a shame because we had asked earlier and had been told we could not invite guests up to the Yacht Club.  It was an easy decision to make to stay with them in the main section of the ship for our dinner that evening.

At 5:30 we went to a presentation about all the shore excursions that were available at the various ports during our cruise and then Zoe & I went shopping in the duty free shops.  I didn't see anything I wanted, but Zoe bought some nice flat shoes that would be comfortable for walking in during our shore excursions.  She had already worn out the walking shoes she had brought with her from Melbourne!

Then we met up again with Wayne & Shane at the theatre to view a musical performance called "Made in Italy", which was quite good, after which we made our way to the booking desk to arrange our excursion in Naples for tomorrow.



Once our booking was completed, we went to the "Red Velvet" restaurant for dinner.  There was an Italian theme, this evening and on the menu was an amazing amount of food - all included in our initial cost so we didn't have to pay.  We could have all or any of the following: calamari, minestrone, insalade (salad), tagliatone, osso bucco, eggplant parmigiana, a cheese platter and rum baba for dessert.  We each had a small selection from this huge offering and some lovely Italian wine.  Some actors came around, dressed up as typical Italian waiters and we had our photos taken with them.  The rum baba was processed in by the waiters while we all cheered and waved our red, white & green napkins in the air and sang classic Italian songs.

Then it was time to return to our cabins and fall into bed!