Our Travels

Early 2018 post We went to Sifawy Boutique Hotel last week with the family and we found it was quiet there. What a breathtaking set up they have there. Just beautiful with marina out front for the kids to ride their scooters and skate while we adults lounge around the pool and breeze bar. We ran into our friends there so the kids had friends to play with so it was lovely.

I thought I'd change the design. However the moment I hit change I regretted my decision ha ha! Typical! It sure looks refreshing though. So we I've hardly used a camera much these days but totally rely on my phone for pictures. I feel sad about this because my second born's life are on a phone camera and not so much on a proper camera. So I feel I may regret this when it comes to printing pictures for their quality. However I plan to print and make a collage and have yet to even do that so hmmmm. I find the system that downloads our pictures to the computer is so user unfriendly. I can't just copy pictures to the blog anymore hence I don't have many pictures on here. I can't even seem to save pictures to my usual albums scheme on hard drives. Utterly frustrating. I guess I should just get my stuff sorted and get it done. Rant over...

School broke out on the 13th and my kids and I were on the flight headed for NZ on the 15th. 19 hours of flying and 12 hours layover later we landed in Auckland into the arms of my social media star sister and niece in the freezing winter. We drove past my other social media start sister's house to drop off said niece but alas she was not there with open arms so on to our base for the time being. We all went straight to bed, had a good night's sleep and woke up the next day to seize the day, ready to watch Samoa v ABs game that very evening.  I had planned to make the game to surprise my almost 9 year old for his birthday but he decided that he didn't want to come and sit for 90 minutes of rugby while his mum, aunties and uncles drink too much beer around him. We agreed that was a fair call so Mum, aunties and uncles game night it was. My sister was busy making pales tinged with blue for the Manu for us in the afternoon and our good friend Saki from Brisbane was at home e...

Filmed by Fagogo mai Samoa's dear friend Henry Tunupopo of our Mum doing the taualuga at the Life-Con fashion show. I was in tears when I saw this missing my mum and so proud of her spirit and pride in our culture. I count my blessings being born to this amazing woman who dances to her own tune in life. 

On our first day at Obereggen, we checked our boys into their respective classes and I decided to ski nearby so I could keep an eye on how their first day went. It didn't take long before my big boy got his confidence back and he was happily going up and down the piste with his class. Then I saw my little one on his first time on skis enjoying the experience as if he'd been born on skis. It was wonderful to see and felt good to know that we could do this more often as a family. Hubby in the meantime went for a hike through the forest realised his shoes weren't quite right drove to a nearby Decathlon Store to buy the proper hiking boots.  In the afternoon he was breaking in the new boots by hiking up the first mountain to meet us for lunch at a restaurant at the top. We had a wonderful first day par some very sore legs and feet but we all agreed it was a beautiful spot and we were in for a beautiful week. We enjoyed the village teepee and returned to the hotel for late aft...

Day 1. We left our dear friends place in the morning and made headway for Obereggen on Saturday morning. The drive from Milan is just magnificent through North Italy. The flat becomes mountains blanketed by terraces of grapevines! I was a passenger in between snoozing I marvelled at the grape growers expertise in traversing the sloped vineyards. Rivers run through vineyards as well as train tracks as a train chugs along through the perfectly lines. And we are on a road that cuts right through this work of art. We ascend higher and higher into the mountains and it's still very green. I'm inwardly worried that there may not be any snow for us to ski on and we were all so looking forward to the snow. We drive through Bonzano and it is warm and the sunshine hitting the green trees is just beautiful. As we ascend the winding road it's still green much to our pleasure coming from the desert however at this moment we'd like white snow! It is of course very late in the season...

We had a lovely Christmas celebration here in Oman. In the morning we woke up to our boys excitement that Santa had arrived the night before. Everyone opened presents and played with them. After breakfast we proceeded to get food ready for friends who were joining us for Christmas lunch. We invited friends and for everyone to bring a plate. Alex, Mike and Koni prepared the umu in the backyard and they started cooking from 8am. We had taro, cassava, pork, lamb, chicken and beef cooked in the umu. The smell of the umu on Christmas day was reminiscent of home and knowing it's a special occasion when you smell that earthen cooking in the air. I baked pavlova and coconut buns and made a salad and set up the place for our lunch. Everyone arrived with arms full of food. There was so much food. There was beef curry, prawn curry, potato gratin, cheese pie, more salads, tiramisu, trifle, cole slaw and all the meat from the umu. There was a lot to eat. There were also a lot of kids in the y...

This year we're staying in Muscat for Christmas so we're making the most of it. A lot of our friends have left town to spend Christmas with their respective families so it's a bit quiet around here. School broke out last week so it was a little hectic as there were Christmas parties, fairs and kids programme's in school to attend and to remember things the kids had to take. There were also local charities to give to through the school so my mummy brain was busy trying to make sure everything was handed in on time and the right thing was given to where! Am sure everyone was apprehensive when the final day of school finally arrived. Some sleep ins here and there and no school lunches for three weeks yay. Christmas fun has started at home. We've put up our tree and we've decorated here and there. We're hosting Christmas lunch this year inviting a few of our friends who are also staying back. So far we've had an outing on the beach yesterday with a few fam...

A private viewing of Moana the movie by Disney was arranged by a few of us in our Pacific Organisation this past Saturday. All 94 seats were taken so the theatre was full of excited parents and kids. Some of us dressed in our Pacific colours, pales, flowers and necklaces to celebrate this significant feat. The fact that mainstream movie makers were featuring our culture and our part of the world on the big screen. Dressed both my boys in their Samoan attire of which they were excited to wear and they chose which beads or shells to wear with their shirts. My eldest wanted to wear his newly acquired shell necklace given to him from his performer and Samoan culture spokesman Uncle Chris.  We arrived at the Cinema foyer and some people were there already and there was so much excitement in the air. I had promoted the significance of the movie to those who asked me about it and one dad came up to express how his kids were more excited now that he told him why the movie was special to...

Since I called this blog our travels I better mention where we went this past summer. In the end we decided to visit friends in Dublin and to see the Republic of Ireland and what a good decision that was. Our friends hooked us up with www.dublincityapartment.ie and what an awesome heads up that was. We got an apartment in the center of Dublin which was walking distance to a lot of fun things. We did the Viking tour which was on a bus that later went on water. We were given Viking helmets and were asked to do a lot of roaring all around town. The kids are supposed to love it but our kid wasn't that excited about it! But I enjoyed it and the other kids on the bus seemed to enjoy it. Nevertheless it was a fun way to see Dublin. We found beautiful parks with playgrounds for the kids to play. We managed to do a few historical sites then catch up with our friends we went to see. Its an awesome walking city, you see a lot within a walking distance and places to eat everywhere. In the mai...

How time has flown by. It's almost mid year once more, when I've just wrapped my head around the digits 2016! We had a long winter but last week the heat hit hard. It was into the late 30s last week and well, I forget how hot it gets here. We've been very lucky having nice weather with rain fall here and there. The new worry is that there may be some cyclones as the weather is warm and sticky...depression build up kind of weather. 

OK no paddles involved but went on a boat yesterday in the 42 degree Oman heat! We made a plan to be at the marina at 8am...and the islanders we all were we finally launched at 9am so it wasn't to bad. This was to beat the scorching heat as it is still the height of summer in this gloriously sunny region! All our boat drivers...hubby and two mates are kind of first timers to driving/captaining a boat so were trying out the speed of the boat much to my dismay and wished from the back seat that I had darts to play find the bulls eye on the captain's back! The sea was a bit rough so the ride left a lot to be desired. Basically I was just worried that my two year old would bounce off the boat and none of us had life jackets and they were sitting in the back of the car! Responsible parents we are not, but I blame the heat because we forgot some life saving sh!t in the car! We didn't forget the coolers with the beers though haha. It's all about hydrating in the heat. We foun...

So my seven year old started back at school 3 days ago and it's already the weekend! We survived the first three days and he's been enjoying going back to school. Of course the first morning of school and he announces that he's too tired and may have to stay home, to which I replied he may not! We dropped him to his classroom and his new teacher took the time to engage with him to which he answered her questions nicely. When he went into the classroom, relief was all over his face when he saw his usual friends and off he went without a look back at his parents. Three days in and he's happy with his class. My little one will start at a creche nearby at the end of the month so that will be good for him also. Today after we dropped off Master Seven, Master Twe and I went to the park and he played for about half an hour. I love the park as only the two of us were there and with the shade under the big trees it wasn't too hot. Later on I took him to the Children's ...

Tomorrow we're off to Dubai for a couple of nights before we go on to see friends in Ireland and onwards from there. I can't wait to visit Ireland. 

We drove down to Ras Al Hadd to see the turtles with our 6 and 1 year olds. We stopped at Wadi Shabb Hotel for the night. We enjoyed the hotel pool and had a swim on the spectacular pebble beach in front of the hotel. We took my SUP board so did a bit of paddling along the beach. It was really calm so it was a beautiful relaxing paddling session. There were a lot of fish and I saw a stingray which darted off as I came closer. The downside was the plastic rubbish strewn everywhere which was just awful. There was plastic in the sea and along the beach. The rock face on the West of the hotel was just beautiful as the sun set. The hotel was empty that night so we ate alone and the food was delicious. All the staff par for one receptionist who was there in the morning were non-locals. The place lacked any personal touch and just felt bland though the rooms were clean and spacious and the food was yummy. 

Manuia le aso e fa'atauaina ai tamaitai o le lalolagi.

We start off our Fridays with our family tradition of Pancake Friday coined by Master 6. After the flavour of the pancakes wears off, the whinging begins wanting to go to his friends house for a playdate...well to his best friend's house who are more like family to us so he wants to visit our friends to play with his bestie. So awhile back I explained that Friday is also Family Friday(it's Sunday in other countries) as in it's for families to spend time together and with each other. Thank goodness for that he now understands that there are no playdates that day unless he's lucky and we happen to plan stuff together with the rest of the gang here.  So the whinging for playdates is now pushed back to Saturday morning heh heh. I don't mind playdates and I encourage it as long as they're playing outside and with toys. Since the other parents have similar rules of no electronics during the week, our kids end up playing outside and all sorts of other games and it re...

Christmas and New Year I am disappointed in how slack I've been with this blog. A recap. Had a lovely Christmas and New Year's in Auckland NZ with my family. We were very lucky with the weather. Apparently it's the best summer Auckland has seen in a long time so we were blessed for sure. It was sunny days to no end the whole four weeks we were there. We had a good ol' "Kiwi Christmas Holiday". My Mum was there and all my sisters bio and step with all our children and two brothers-in-law:-) Missed the bio brothers and their families... and the family tree keeps growing. It was great having all the kids in one place to the point where there were fights here and there as they got on each others nerves! eek. While we adults also go on each others nerves but we plodded along with lots of deep breathes and lots of omms oh and the wines now and again helped too! Thought after one big before NY I could hardly stay up for the count down. Yep great greeting of t...

Today was my 6 year old's sports say at school from grades 1 to 3. The school sent emails over a week ago encouraging parents to come support our kids on sports day. I had marked it down to make sure I didn't miss it. I dropped my son as normal then sat in the car and played with my phone until it was time to go to the sports field to watch the kids play. It was a well organised sports day with stations well laid out by the time we got there and they had pre-picked teams the week before. The kids were tagged with stickers like name badges to remind them and to show the supervisors which teams they belonged to. Once the teams were sent to which station they started at off went the sports day. So we parents basically stood on the side lives and cheered on the kids. Well this fob mother wasn't quiet, I was shouting like I was at the Olympics. And not just for my son...for all the kids whose names I knew. Anyway in my son's team there was this one boy who was distracted ...

Having fun at the ANZO Christmas Party in Muscat Intercontinental Hotel Gardens We won the gingerbread house at the party. And we ate it at home lol