Our Travels

We landed at Salzburg airport at 1.30pm on the 19th and Desiree was there to pick us up. It was -4 degrees!!! It was freezing. Hopped in the car and came home to the warmth of Mondsee. The drive was fanstastic as all around us was white snow. It hasn't snowed again but due to the cold days the fields are still white and the tree tops glisten from the frost. It's just spectacular. It's turning into the dream Christmas I was hoping for. Unfortunately Alex couldn't make it:( Two nights ago Fleur and I went to the Christmas market in Mondsee and the kids from the local school were singing Christmas songs all evening. Christmas market consists of a lot of eating and drinking but I had to resort to the kids' punch! It was a lovely evening and there were loads of beautiful displays. Yesterday we went to Salzburg to pick up our tickets for the Christmas concert and also got to see the Salzburg Christmas Market which was much bigger with a variety of stalls. Took lots of pic...

I am 14 weeks pregnant now and happy as can be. I've now passed the critical 12 weeks so I'm more comfortable to announce that we're having a baby. Baby is due next June and pray be to the Big Man that all goes well and baby arrives safely and healthy. This week has been full on. We've been taking Mom and Fleur all over town and on Tuesday we drove through Nizwa saw the souk and the fort there before continuing on to the Wahiba Sands. We stayed at the Al Raha Camp which was very nice. The desert was just something else. The golden sands and bedouin camps al around as we drove through it to the camp was just magnificent. It was quite surreal. We were taken up a sand dune to watch the sunset and what a view. What a world that we live in that we get to watch the same sun set from different settings around the world and the experience is somewhat unique and yet familiar at the same time. Mom was like a child in the sand. It was fun to watch Mom make the most of the desert. ...

Mom arrived two nights ago which is very exciting. I'm so happy to have Mom here with us and also visiting the Middle East for the first time. We've also just picked up my sister Fleur who arrived from Austria a few hours ago. So now we have an apartment full of loved ones, singing, laughter and lots of smoking from Mom and Fleur. Last night we went to our friends Millie and Ali's place for a party. They were all looking forward to meet Mom and what fun we had there. We didn't come home till 3 am in the morning. Mom had a ball and everyone of course was fighting over the microphone when the hosts turned on the karaoke. It was good fun with good food.

Well here we are again in Dubai. We came to support our boys in the sevens. We were proud of course to cheer for our boys from the BP stand with the rest of the Samoan crew from around the Middle East. It was fun off the field just laughing, singing and clowning with all the Samoan sistas and bradas as well as other Samoan supporters who donned Samoan colours to support our team. Our boys lost to England in the quarter-finals and then lost to Argentina in the Plate final. It was a close game nevertheless. I'm not fazed by this because last year it was a similar result and they came back to kick butt in Wellington and Hong Kong. Our boys are strong and there are some solid experienced boys in there and I think we have a winning combination again this year. With the likes of Rudolph Moors as the coach there's plenty to come. We wish them all the best in SA and we believe in you guys. Much alofa and support from the Samoans top fans in Oman. The final between NZ and Fiji was a goo...