Our Travels

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.